Burlwood, Gold, and the Maker's Hand: High Point Market Fall 2026 Trends

Burlwood, gilded finishes, and deliberately visible craft dominated High Point Market Fall 2026, as creative directors across the furniture fair pushed away from precision and perfection. "I think we're all craving a sense of humanness," said designer Anne-Marie Barton, who launched several richly tactile new fixtures for Visual Comfort & Co. Her line captured the fair's clearest through-line: buyers want to see the artisan's hand.

Cold, gusty weather dampened the weekend outdoors, but the show floors delivered. Hudson Valley Lighting relaunched Schoolhouse, the Portland, Oregon-bred brand it acquired in Food52's bankruptcy auction earlier this year, restoring color, pattern, and coziness to the label. Two newer exhibition halls, 313 Space and Broad Hall, pulled in fresh vendors and non-furniture players including Monogram, Artistic Tile, Cosentino, and Miele — and generated some of the most compelling displays at Market.

Why is burlwood everywhere?

High-figure burlwood cut across aesthetics at this Market, from traditional Biedermeier silhouettes to low-slung Modernist coffee tables. "Anything with high-figure, deep piles, and an energy that makes you want to walk up and touch it — that's in," said Adam Dunn, senior vice president of design and creative director at Four Hands. On the way out, he added, are "really flat, dull veneers — anything that's a plain, straight-grain material that doesn't have any movement."

Four Hands doubled down with the Rainey sectional, an ellipse-shaped seat wrapped in walnut burl. Theodore Alexander took the traditional route with its new Stephen Church collection, where the English cabinetmaker uses okoume, khaya, and satinwood veneers.

How far does the gold trend go?

Many of the season's collections borrowed from the S/S27 Paris runways, where Anthony Vaccarello's gold-lit Saint Laurent farewell and a high-shine mesh halter dress at Schiaparelli drew raves. At High Point, the metallic mood showed up in concrete products:

• Hudson Valley Lighting's Hollis Hills pendant, with scalloped capiz shells radiating a golden iridescence
• Bernhardt's burnished gold finish on the desk and coffee table in its new Chatham Park collection
• Four Hands' acid-wash antiqued brass across several SKUs in its 30th Anniversary capsule
• Donghia's Skyline wallcovering collection, from the metallic moire High Society to the tonal jacquard weave of Rolling Hills

What happened to the color palettes?

Palettes leaned safe: muted blues and greens — known bestsellers — with doses of beet, butterscotch, and chocolate. Regina Andrew launched its antique brass Veiller lighting collection with fan-pleated shades in Olive, Mist Blue, and Oyster. Little Greene celebrated its 2027 Color of the Year, Marle (355), a quiet, reflective brown. Thomas O'Brien launched no new SKUs but refreshed his Century vignettes, revealing Silken Pine and Fresh Brew as the Benjamin Moore shades he returns to again and again.

Brown Jordan's outdoor palette of Butter (yellow), Canyon (terracotta), Harbor (gray-blue), and Bamboo (a crisp green) — a capsule drawn from the maker's 25 frame finishes — looked sharp on the clean-lined Vero collection, the company's more affordable line. The standout application was on the neoclassical Venetian Collection, designed by Richard Frinier in 1987 and still a brand bestseller nearly four decades later. Brown Jordan also announced it will extend its furniture color palette to the cabinetry range for Brown Jordan Outdoor Kitchens.

What does the 'maker's hand' mean for products?

The craft revival ran through the fair's most talked-about launches. Sean Lavin, chief design officer for Visual Comfort, pointed to the company's new faceted brass and alabaster pendants, which deliberately reveal their joinery welds. "Our factory team are saints given the amount of times I had them readjust panels and re-weld marks," he said. "That's the maker's hand."

Morris & Co. previewed its first embroidered grasscloth, available to the trade in January. Pooky's collaboration with passementerie house Samuel & Sons officially launches November 3, pairing artisan tassels and trimmings with pleated silk shades in coral, light blue, and emerald green. The Margaux flush mount, bordered in Samuel & Sons's handwoven Crete trim, was a High Point crowd favorite, said Chief Creative Director Jo Plant.

Plant hinted at where Pooky goes next: "We've also been bringing out a lot more ceramics, reactive glazes, and textural forms. It feels a bit handmade, and people understand that not every piece will look the same. They appreciate that it's an artisan process."

That tolerance for variation — pieces that don't match perfectly — may be the real signal from Fall Market: the industry is pricing imperfection in, not out.