Other Interhall exhibitors join us...

Darren has gotten fired up. Ever since our decision to donate 1% of our High Point sales to Equality NC, he has made it a mission to spread the word and encourage others to participate. We're pleased that many of our fellow Interhall exhibitors have agreed. Among those who have made the commitment are:

• Bungalow 5

• Aviva Standoff,

• Natural Curiosities

• Seasonal Living

• Luna Bella

• Nima Oberoi Lunares 

And more are joining every day. Just yesterday the movement spread out of Interhall with the addition of Made Goods. 

We couldn't be happier to have all of these great companies standing together and working to make a positive change. We'd also like to give an extra THANKS! to Bungalow 5 for taking such an active role and helping us stay organized and ever growing. 

Hope everyone has a great market.

Read more about the issue here.

High Point and North Carolina HB2

When the North Carolina state legislature rushed through HB2 (a one day special session??) and Governor McCrory signed it that evening(!?), we started a conversation internally to determine how we wanted to respond. High Point Market was coming up and it is an important event for us and our customers....and yet this law had a direct deliterious effect to many of our friends, customers, colleagues, family, and neighbors.

What does HB2 do? Among other things, it prohibits local anti-discrimination protections for gay, bisexual and transgender people and restricts transgender bathroom use.  So a city like Charlotte, who wants to make all their citizens feel welcome and accepted, could no longer pass ordinances to effect those goals. We were deeply concerned by this law and its implications We felt it was (and is) an unfair attack on employment, education, and local governance. It encouraged discrimination and is particularly demeaning towards transgender men and women.

So...what to do? Some businesses chose to respond to stop doing business with or in the state. The reasoning is that by applying economic pressure, the state government would change course. This worked on Mike Pence in Indiana, for instance. It is can be a powerful tool, to be sure. We didn't think it was the tool for us.

One of our core values is to support and contribute to our community. We show this in many ways, such as locating our Chicago facility in an underserved neighborhood and participating in political and business committees and action groups to revitalize the area. When given the choice between a positive or a negative action, we try to always choose the positive. More engagement. Louder voices. Taking action. Therefore, we decided to stay involved in the market, be visible, and speak out. We'd find an organization to support.

After reading on the actions taken by the ACLU and Lambda Legal, we started reaching out to our customers and partners in North Carolina to see what they thought and who they would recommend. The organization that came up again and again was Equality NC. After seeing the work they accomplished on The School Violence Protection Act, their advocacy for domestic partnerships, hospital visitation rights, parental rights, and a myriad of other issues, we knew they were the organization for us. As a small organization ourselves, we appreciate the big effects dedicated and enthusiastic people can accomplish.

We reached out to them and have come up with our plan. We are proud to announce that we will be donating 1% of all our High Point Market sales to them directly. We will also have literature supporting their organization in our booth and will support their efforts going forward. If you'd like to join us in our support, contact Darren.

You can read our press release about this issue at Home Accents Today, Furniture Today, and the Greensboro News and Record.

Gold Leaf Design Group Opens Permanent Showroom at Americasmart Atlanta

NEWSFLASH!

Gold Leaf Design Group, trend-setting home and garden product design company, debuts its exciting new permanent showroom in Atlanta on Tuesday, July 7. The gorgeous corner showroom is prominently located at Building 1, Room 9A-1 and features the company’s wide range of home décor products, including tableware, vases, sculptures, area rugs, occasional furniture, and wall decor such as its exclusive Wall Play™ line.

“We’ve been showing in Atlanta since we started.” says principal Darren DeMatoff, “It has always been a great show for us and as we’ve continued to grow it made sense to take the next step up to a permanent location there. We will be a great addition to the floor with excellent neighbors such as Luna Bella and Bo Bo Intriguing Objects.”

The opening of its second permanent showroom – the first being Las Vegas back in January  – comes as Gold Leaf Design Group enters its 21st year. “Vegas was proof that we can really shine in a permanent location.” says Darren, “It allows us to be more bold and creative in our displays and to show a wider range of our product line than ever before. Customer response was phenomenal and we met a new set of people that rarely travelled to the temporary spaces.”

Gold Leaf will be celebrating this milestone with new product launches and specials throughout the show and also with a cocktail reception and merriment on Friday, July 10 at 5pm. This celebration will be part of the Floor 9 party.

The new showroom is open year-round with appointment.

Sharing the #gldgLOVE

We recently joined Twitter and to celebrate, we decided to have a little contest. People from around the country tweeted us photos of their favorite Gold Leaf items...while at the High Point, in their stores, in their client's homes. We were so excited to see them. You folks are awesome and are doing great stuff!

We put the entries into a hat and pulled our winners.

10% discount on their next Order
- Baltimore Design Group
- Absolute Design Interiors
- Reside Home
- Kristen Petro Interiors
- Four Corners Home

Charley Harper Birds go to
- Home on the Harbor
- Kendrac Kole Interiors
- R Johnston Interiors
- San Francisco Design
- Karen Kole Designs
- Details Home Boutique
- Jessie D'Angelo Studio
- Sklar Furnishings
- Finnesterre

Thanks to all who participated and keep sending those photos in!

Getting Excited for Spring Shows

2015 is right around the corner. We are planning and finalizing our show displays and receiving the first of the the show catalogs like AmericasMart Atlanta where we were featured in their Worlds of Wonder picks. We are looking forward to showing you our new collections.

In Other Exciting News

Las Vegas market has a brand new section and in it...we have a brand new permanent showroom in Las Vegas! Help us inaugrate it by making it our most visited space ever. Come to Building C,  Showroom #502 and you can see how we have decked it out January 18–22. 

Where else to find us

We are all over the country in the spring. Check out our Trade show schedule on when and where to find us in Atlanta, Las Vegas, High Point and New York. And check back now and then as we might add a show or two. We might be near YOU.

Gold Leaf in Las Vegas

We are in Las Vegas at the HD Expo (Booth 4161...stop by if you are around!). After some challenges in set-up we're excited to be meeting people and showing off some of our unique artifacts, custom work, and some experiments that yielded some fun results.

Of course, it isn't all work. We have to step out to eat...sometimes. We visited the Steampunk-influenced RX Boiler Room at Mandalay Bay and look what we found there...our Mirrored Animal Trophies. They look great.

Darren DeMatoff on TV!

KoniTV.tv, that is. Back at the HD Las Vegas show Darren took some time to show the folks from Koni around our award-winning (Best Curb Appeal!) exhibition space. Take a look. See our lovely custom arrangements. Hear Darren work his magic. He's Internet Famous! Even though they got our website address wrong, we're very excited and proud.

KoniTV.tv is the online hospitality design channel from the well regarded Koni Corporation, hotel supply company specializing in soft goods.

See Gold Leaf Design Group at AmericasMart Atlanta!

Today's our first day in Atlanta and we're ready to show you the goods! Exhausted from the set-up but excited nonetheless. Come by, we look forward to seeing you! (High Design 1st floor, Building 2W, Booth 115)

Pick up a copy of July's Home Accents Today, our Grenada Furniture is featured on the GEO POP page, a page dedicated to market trending geometric inspired designs. Our aluminum Grenada Furniture adds magnificent texture to any landscape. Powder coated in black then hand-polished to expose highlights while leaving recessed details, these sculptural furniture pieces will maintain their luster inside or out. See dimensions and more photos of our Grenada side table and bench on our website.

Setting up shop in Atlanta

Our exhibition space has been designed. Our products for showing selected. Everything has been boxed up and shipped. Now we are busy unpacking, assembling, and getting ready to receive you all. It is AmericasMart Atlanta! From July 12 – 16th, you can find us in High Design 1st floor, Building 2W, Booth 115. Come by to see our latest products, talk to us about custom projects, and find special tradeshow floor only specials. We hope to see you there!

But if not...you'll have another chance at the end of July in Las Vegas...or in mid-August in New York as we take our show on the road. See our tradeshow schedule for more details.

Back from High Point Market

We're still unpacking from High Point Market. As always, it was equal parts exciting and exhausting.

It is great talking face-to-face with customers both old and new. So much of our time is spent in our creative walled garden in Chicago that tradeshows sometimes feel like the only social interaction with you all that we get. (Though now with our new Showroom...maybe we can see you more often!)

We also were excited to see our products outside of our exhibition space whether it was in the HGTV twitter feed or in the three macro trend exhibitions presented by High Point Markets and WSGN-HomebuildLife. We had a lot of people coming up to us having seen those juried exhibits. We had products in all three trends and had more than any other company. #keepingscore

One of the highlights for us was the BBQ at Toad Alley and sales meeting we held for our disparate and scattered sales representatives.

Our next two tradeshows are the HD Expo in Las Vegas and America's Mart in Atlanta. Take a look at our tradeshow schedule on our website for more information. We also just added the Las Vegas Market at the end of July. We hope to see you there.

Setting Up the Booth at the NYIGF

Darren, Allan and Jose have just begun setting up the booth for the New York Gift Fair and have already hit a wall. Wait, strike that. Reverse it.

12:10pm EST - "Jose crushes foot and toe setting up booth. We are now down one person but must continue."

We Love New York in January, How About You?

This morning, Darren, Allan and Jose checked out the 18" of snow that was dumped in New York last night.

On to New York?

Booth photos from this year's Atlanta Market will be on our website today! Just log in to goldleafdesigngroup.com and click on "HD Exhibitions" to see how it all turned out. Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth.

Darren and Allan are at the airport now ready to head to New York International Gift Fair... but are now facing the same issues that plagued their delays into Atlanta and threatened their show attendance: Snow.

6:43am CST - "Going to O'Hare Airport. Changed to earlier flight to beat New York snow storm."

8:15am CST - "On plane, ready for take off."

8:32am CST - "Sitting on runway now. A sudden snowstorm in new York delays us for 50 minutes, they say.  Will we leave?"

9:16am CST - "New York airport closed. Sitting on runway for 45 more minutes."

9:29am CST - "Sleeping."

10:16am CST - "Going back to gate. No take off."

10:37am CST - "Here we sit!" (Broken-hearted)

11:15am CST - "De-planing."

11:57am CST - "Back on plane. The only flight supposed to now leave. All other flights today are cancelled into New York."

3:07pm EST - "Just landed in New York. After almost 5 hour delay. Lot of snow!"

4:30pm EST - "Made it to the hotel and now going to work. More wintry mix starting. 5 inches expected tonight."

5:05pm EST - "Slippery."

Phew! Catch us January 29 through February 2! Pier 94, At Home division, Booth #45044 at the Javits Center!

Atlanta Market Marathon: Thursday Evening

8:12pm EST   "Now our scanners and bar code labels don't work."

9:13pm EST  "Finished." They set up the booth for over 20 hours straight.

9:51pm EST   "Leaving Mart. Back at 7 am to price."

Atlanta Market Marathon: Thursday Afternoon

12:04 pm EST

 

1:17pm EST  12th straight hour of setup...

2:55pm EST  "Tired!" (Darren and Allan have been up now for nearly 36 hours straight.)

3:35pm EST  "Joe just got here."

Atlanta Market Marathon: Thursday Morning

11:50pm EST  Arrived at the Mart. There will be a booth here by tonight.

12:50am EST  The walls have begun to go up.

2:31am EST  "walls are all up"

5:56am EST  Time to add product

8:23am EST  Things are taking shape

9:41 am EST "Going for coffee. Have not stopped."

10:47am EST  "Atlanta ice"

10:48am EST  "Jorge arrives to help"