Furniture Today Newspaper

AUGUST 17, 2007

HIDDENITE, N.C. — Elaine Bolick compares upholstery merchandising to a crossword puzzle. You find the right color palette and the right fabric. Then you find the right frame. And then you see if it will fit into the price point slot that you’re seeking. Then you hope the consumer will buy it. “You have to merchandise for pretty but sell for volume. There’s a fine line there,” said the vice president of Paladin Furniture, a midpriced upholstery maker Bolick and her husband, Tim, founded Paladin nearly four years ago, at a time when the economy was lagging even more than it is now. “It was kind of like the best of times and the worst of times,” she said. But Bolick, the optimist, thinks it was a good time to start a business. When business is good, she said, retailers shrink from changing their floors. “But if you go in and they’re struggling, they’ll say, ‘Let me see what you’ve got. Anything can help me,’ “she said. Bolick had been at Valdese Weavers for about six months when Tim decided to leave Alexvale and start his own company. She joined her husband in the new enterprise and, while she could have handled both jobs at the beginning, decided it would be a conflict of interest to know what other companies were planning. But the stint in fabric manufacturing gave her insight into different yarns, construction methods and color directions and also taught her how to sniff out the most productive product categories. Coming from a furniture family, Bolick began thinking about merchandising and fabrics early. She would look at the sofas in her grandfather’s furniture store, visualizing them in more cozy settings. And on Saturdays, she would play happily with fabrics at Conover Chair, where her father was vice president. An interior design major in college, Elaine married Tim in 1981, and started a retail furniture operation, Hickory Mark, which is now run by Tim’s brother. She later joined Alexvale, where she worked in merchandising for 10 years. From there, she went to LADD, where she was vice president of fashion for three of the corporation’s divisions — Pennsylvania House, Clayton Marcus and Barclay. Bolick draws inspiration from everywhere. “Sometimes I’ll go to a new Gap display, and stand back and look at why I like it or don’t like it…what colors are jumping out at me. “Or I will go into a new restaurant and ask, ‘Why do I like this; why do I like this atmosphere?’ ” Bolick said one of her most important collections, Potpourri for Alexvale, came from looking at “the beautiful patchwork on a jacket” at a women’s boutique. The inspiration was no secret: She bought several of the dresses and displayed them on mannequins with the furniture when it was introduced. Some things Bolick has picked up in her career: Lighting is important. She uses the same lighting in her workroom that she uses in the showroom. Be good to fabric salesmen. They can help you a lot. And you can be creative at all price points. For instance, you can take a promotional plaid, make it bigger, clean it up and make it more appealing. Bolick is happy to share advice. To colleagues who work for or with her, she tells them “to go from your gut and instincts and make sure you’re selling to the masses. But be sure to add some ‘pop’ to it.” “I really love what I do,” she said. “That’s what I tell my kids: You know, whether you make a lot of money or you don’t, please do what you love.”

Quotes about Bolick:
“Elaine has the vision to be ahead of every fashion trend that is important in our industry. (She) said washed fabric would be the biggest thing in upholstery if a mill could figure out how to mass produce it and make it consistently. The result was an entire shift in the industry. Customers now demand a soft hand. Elaine also has a keen ability to put fabrics together that the average person would not be able to see. The Paladin floor is one of the best examples of multiple fabrics to a single frame application that you will see anywhere in the market.” --Jack Cobb, American Decorative Fabrics “Energetic and creative. With Elaine’s technical background in weaving she can come up with great ideas for new designs and constructions. I love the fact that, as a person, she loves to laugh, too!” --Steve Dutson, Peachtree Fabrics