Armen Living entered the outdoor furniture industry in 2020, a prime time for casual furniture as people stayed at home and wanted to spend time outside. Since then, the category has taken off for the company.
Holly Lightfoot, director of product development, says the outdoor category makes up a third of Armen Living’s total business, and it’s continuing to grow.
“Everything we do is more on the contemporary side, but within our outdoor category, we have a good mix of metal, woven and wood options,” she said. “So we we can cover a lot of styles, but still maintain that more transitional, contemporary feel for our customers.”
Armen Living now offers seating and dining groups, but it has also found a lucrative niche in the category: bar stools. With its indoor products, bar stools are a popular item that most people need. The company has taken that idea and built a robust bar-stool collection.
“We’ve seen an increase in interest in counter-height or bar-height dining in outdoor,” she said. We’re bringing out some more dining options at those taller heights, and then also having bar-stool options for outdoor as well, which our customers really seem to respond to.”
The company doubled down on its commitment to the outdoor category by opening a permanent showroom in AmericasMart for the Casual Market this past July.
“We had a great Atlanta show this summer, and we had quality customers, both new and existing,” Lightfoot said. “The July Casual Market allows for a little bit more time to talk to customers. It’s more focused and you’re not distracted by all the other categories. We spent more quality time with customers.”
At the market, the company unveiled a bar-height dining table in eucalyptus called the Delfina collection. Lightfoot said this collection had a great response and she’s already working on expanding it. Another category that had a great response was smaller sets for smaller spaces, like patios, apartments and condos.
“We launched a group called Pavilion, and it’s a swivel chair with a little end table. We showed it as a three-piece set, and it’s very comfortable. It’s a swivel, so everyone loves it, and it’s very cute for a small space, with a high-end look. From the response we received from that, I’ve added swivel chairs to all of the woven groups that we’ve launched this year. We have Breeze, Pavilion and Drift Bay, which are three of our woven groups, and they all have a swivel chair and end table option. Retailers can do a full, deep seating set with a sofa, chair, ottoman, coffee table, or just two swivel chairs and a table.”
According to Lightfoot, furniture for small spaces is becoming popular as people downsize and look for options that fit in tighter areas.
As the company looks to the future, Lightfoot says the company will continue to commit to releasing new outdoor products at every market. And she has a lot in the works.
“The other part of how I look at the product development for outdoor is, I like to create full collections,” Lightfoot said. “Going back to the idea of small spaces, by creating a full collection that has a full dining option, a small dining option, a deep-seating group and a swivel chair, consumers have a choice of how much or how little they can bring in. We’ll be bringing out a lot of big collections, but with pieces that can stand alone.”
