Emerald is front and center at World Market Center show

s the 2013 Winter Las Vegas Market rolled through town, emerald was everywhere.

The Pantone Color Institute's color of the year, emerald was front and center at the twice-yearly show for design professionals and furniture retailers, including in a room vignette at Pantone's own display.

"For the most part, (emerald) really reflects the era we're living in," said Pantone's vice president, Laurie Pressman.

While specific sales information wasn't readily available - the color of the year impact trickles down to multiple industries including clothing, makeup, home design and car choice - Pantone's decision isn't trivial.

At the winter market, where the "Road to Emerald" was prominent, Pressman said the panel that chooses the color of the year looks at trends everywhere to determine which hue will be featured.

With roughly 50,000 people attending the expo through Friday , a lot of eyes will be on emerald at the World Market Center Las Vegas. The show features 1,800 companies exhibiting across 5 million square feet in three buildings. Of that total, 207 are new lines, including 27 new permanent furniture tenants.

Collectively, the new showrooms represent an investment in excess of $7.5 million.

Four of the new showrooms opened at the Las Vegas Design Center, which is open year-round to the public. The Las Vegas Market also created a new hub dedicated to bedding products that features almost 25 bedding resources and more than 100,000 square feet of bedding displays.

While many new showrooms are being featured at winter market, many existing ones expanded. For example, Mac Motion Chairs, a maker of European-styled motion chairs, doubled the size of its showroom to better spotlight the company's Oslo collection of two-piece motion chairs and ottomans. Through this expansion, the company is able to showcase Oslo as a standalone collection with about 15 models. In the past, it has only exhibited two or three Oslo models.

Acme Furniture, an importer of bedroom, dining room, home office, occasional and accent furniture, too has expanded and relocated. At 31,000 square feet, the new space is 50 percent larger than its previous space.

"Our business has been expanding very rapidly," said Gabriel Pu, senior sales vice president of Acme. "The time was right to increase our space so that we can show more of our fast-growing line."

Besides the color of the year, Pressman talked about overall trends for 2013. She cited the twisted tradition style, such as that represented by Tommy Hilfiger or Ralph Lauren. The brands mix traditional colors of red, white and blue with a bright orange or green to "twist" the traditional and make it more unique.

Pressman also noted that pop art will continue to be popular, while films and television will affect design choices. The forthcoming "Great Gatsby" film will help art deco trends and "Downton Abbey," the hit Public Broadcasting Service TV series, has ensured the continuing popularity of purples and antique whites.

Back at Pantone's exhibit, iPads were set up for attendees to use Houzz's online platform for home remodeling and design. There, designers could look up items featured in the room vignettes and see where they are at market.

"I think people have been excited about the products," said Liza Hausman, vice president of community for Houzz, which co-sponsored the exhibit. "They're actually making notes so they can find them at the different vendors around the show."

Contact reporter Laura Carroll at
lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588.
Follow @lscvegas on Twitter.