October 8, 2014 —
The Wall Street Journal reports that luxury consumers are ditching their dining rooms and turning the spaces into everything from home offices to libraries. Shelter magazines have pages devoted to revamping or repurposing your formal dining room. The National Association of Home Builders predicts that single-family homes of the future will get smaller: the average home size will be 2,150 square feet in 2015, down 250 square feet from this year and almost 400 square feet from 2007. According to the survey, most builders expect to see more great rooms—a combination of the family and living rooms that flow into the kitchen—and more eat-in kitchens and fewer formal dining rooms. This begs the question, are the dining rooms and the furniture we put in them in for some radical changes?
RetailerNOW talked with three companies that produce and/or distribute dining furniture to get more insight into the category— Mike Cohen, vice president of sales at Coaster, Bill Herren, creative director, Woodard and Adam Tilley, vice president of product at Stanley.
Before you panic and start unloading your dining room inventory, relax. Dining is not dead. It represents more than 25 percent of Coaster’s business, it’s Stanley’s second largest category (at 30 percent) and for Woodard it’s a little more than 40 percent of sales.
The dining room is evolving and so is the furniture. Über formal dining rooms are a thing of the past, according to Tilley. “In the 80s and 90s dining rooms were very formal; you needed a table pad, you were worried about scratching the surface. Folks struggle with really formal furniture,” he says. “People are shying away from that at a mass level; they still want the big table that seats 8-10 people, they just don’t want it to be stuffy.”
Coaster’s Mullingan group has optional bench seating, a growing trend in dining.
The larger tables are important, people still have dinner parties and family gatherings and, as we all know, the kitchen (or kitchen/dining room combo) are always the hot spots for any soiree. Cohen says casual dining is also growing and in fact gathering tables with benches are very popular. Herren says the 48” round table is always popular, but lately they’ve also had requests for more ovals and rectangles.
Woodard is an outdoor furniture manufacturer, but they are starting to see outdoor furniture inching inside, particularly in homes with children or pets. “At premarket in Chicago I showed a dining set and people said they’d use it inside,” Herren says. “On the seating they’re using a lot more of that inside, especially on the woven because it’s virtually indestructible.”
Consumers are looking for dining options that satisfy their sense of style, meet their needs and require little maintenance. Herren says “I notice people are getting away from glass on dining tables—they want something that’s easier to take care of.”
Dining is a category retailers and vendors alike have been struggling with, Tilley says. “It’s a category that’s had its ups and downs; as an industry we’re trying to figure it out.”
So with all of that—how can retailers be successful in this category?
Cohen says his best customers offer selection. “The majors that do well will always have a full product selection with all styles.” Retailers need to have “a logical plan for good, better, best. It’s not always about price-point. As Mattress Mac says—SKU up.”
Merchandising and color, Herren says, are important. “Our best customers show it all decked out, [accessorized] to give the consumer ideas,” he says. Also, “the more color you show, even if they aren’t going to buy it that way, the more it gets their attention.”
Fairlane, from Stanley, has several tables, including this oval that transforms into a round for smaller spaces.
Tilley agrees that display and merchandising are key. “When a retailer offers a $6,000-8,000 dining room table they really have to display it well. You can’t just take that table and stick it out there next to the bedroom furniture. The total room experience is so important.” He also cautions retailers not to skimp on space by trying to show a large table without its leaves—it has to make a grand statement. “Retailers who are doing well are taking a Disneyland approach to displays and are having fun with it and creating rooms consumers fall in love with.”
Stanley, Coaster and Woodard have different approaches when it comes to product roll outs.
Coaster’s new collections typically include options for living, dining and bedroom. Cohen says customers appreciate seeing these options and having the styles shown across all categories helps them make purchasing decisions.
Dining has become more important to Woodard, Herren says. When they introduce a new seating group they now introduce dining as part of the collection. “People are spending so much more money on their outdoor areas,” he says. The seating and dining don’t have to match “but they do have to blend, not different styles but different finishes and fabrics.”
Stanley takes a two-pronged approach. In the higher price-point category they roll out whole-home, 100+ piece collections, but “they are more of a collected lifestyle look,” Tilley says.
There are mixed materials and different finish options so the overall style is the same, but with different variations. “You can tell a story about a customer that lives in a home that is fully furnished with one collection that looks like a curated group that goes together,” Tilley says.
At starting price points Stanley offers portfolios, which focus strictly on categories. “This is for the retailer who might need to fill in their dining room gallery for example,” Tilley says. “It has a lot of style and value but you don’t have to buy a 100-piece collection. Louis Philippe bedrooms sell well, but not dining room, for example. This option helps our turns and the retailers’ turns and it’s easy to buy, advertise and sell.”
“Dark finishes are still hot, unique styles get attention,” Cohen says. “And commodity, inexpensive looks will always be top sellers.”
Cohen thinks the trend in dining over the next 10 years will continue with smaller dining rooms or no formal dining rooms because of new home and apartment construction, but he also sees gathering and expandable tables, well…expanding.
Larger options are in as Woodard’s Casa dining table shows; this table comfortably seats up to 10 people.
“People are getting bigger, so there’s a need for bigger furniture,” Herren says. “We also have more requests for a softer looking contemporary, not so angular.”
Tilley says there is a strong business in solid wood casual dining, particularly the Amish look. He admits it’s hard to figure out the category but Stanley is refocusing on dining and based on introductions at the summer Las Vegas market, he’s optimistic. He sees products that do double duty becoming even more important, for example étagères that double as bookcases or office pieces, tables used as desks or console tables that collapse into themselves or buffets that turn into media consoles. “Multi-purpose products are important.”
“We know there is business to be done there,” Tilley says. “Dining is one of the areas of the home that people are going to come back to and start spending on as we emerge from this great unpleasantness [economy]. If you figure out how to do it well, you’ll take a lot of the market share in the dining category.”