Create Art Full Homes For Your Clients

Producers of the Fine Furnishings Providence Show are so excited about their 10th Anniversary Show that they’re holding it a full two weeks early! Actually, the dates have been moved up to October 21 – 23, 2005 to allow for a substantial expansion of exhibition floor space within the Rhode Island Convention Center. The show will now occupy Halls B, C & D for a total of 72,000 square feet with 325 booth spaces available for this year. The Providence Craft Show, set to run concurrently with admission on the same ticket, will occupy Hall A.

The Fine Furnishings Providence Show presents a showcase for the finest in custom and studio furniture, decorative accessories and fine art. The show is open to artists and designers who are the primary entrepreneurs behind their business and intrinsically involved in the design and handcrafting process. Work is all original, well conceived, imaginative and appropriate for home decor. It has become a great buying opportunity for shop owners and interior designers.

The show is an incredible resource for fresh and exciting home furnishings that are designed and handcrafted by talented artisans from throughout North America. Thirty to forty percent of the artisans exhibiting in the show are new each year. The show is one big, exciting showroom full of the artists and their wares. For many of the exhibitors Fine Furnishings is the ONLY show they do each year.

Claudia Mills, who displays her colorful hand-woven rag and leather rugs at the show every year recently stated, “The designers I have met at the Fine Furnishings Show are looking for unique and well-crafted work both in furniture and home accessories. They are always happy to find new and stimulating resources outside the realm of the design center at the show. Most of the artisans exhibiting do custom consignment work and are in the show specifically to make contact with designers and architects.”

The annual design competition is always a favorite show feature for interior decorators and others in the trade. At least one dozen of the area’s most talented decorators will be invited to design and create a room within a designer showhouse that will be centrally located right on the exhibit floor. Each decorator will style their room utilizing custom cabinets designed and crafted by some of the country’s finest studio furniture makers. They will complete their settings with unique accessories such as rugs, lamps, mirrors, artwork, pillows and throws made by other show exhibitors. The showhouse will provide attendees with a plethora of ideas they can utilize in their own homes.

The design competition has become such a popular and fun aspect of the Fine Furnishings Show that designers such as Laureen McGarry of Eclectic Design Concepts in Farmington, Connecticut are calling and asking to be a part of it. “I saw the great rooms that the designers created in 2003 and I just had to be a part of all that fun the next time around, Laureen said upon entering the competition last year. I can’t wait to see what we get to work with this year since all the show’s exhibitors are so creative. The fact that we have such a limited time to create our vignette makes it even more exciting!” Laureen won the “executive retreat” category last year with her sophisticated office designed around a desk built by Doug Green of Green Design Furniture in Portland, Maine.

The Fine Furnishings Providence Show is owned and produced by KL Communications, Inc., which has over 20 years experience producing consumer and trade shows. Karla Little, President of KL Communications, conceived and launched the show ten years ago. The show’s advisory board includes Bill Huston, furniture maker; Claudia Mills, hand woven rug artist; Henry Fox, furniture maker, Peter Thibeault, furniture maker; Bonnie Bishoff, furniture maker; and Gretchen Keyworth, Director of Fuller Craft Museum; Hope Hudner, designer; Maggie Vale, designer; Roz Rustigian, retail store owner; William McCarthy, fine artist; and Lynn Szymanski, Wood Department Head at Worcester Center for Crafts.

For more information, or to sign-up to design a room in the showhouse call 401-841-9201.