What's sex got to do with it?
Gone are the days of feminine parlors and masculine dens. With today’s open floor plans, families must comfortably coexist in shared spaces.
Yet in any given room, “The last thing you want to have is something so gender-neutral that it appeals to no one,” says industry researcher and furniture designer Tracy Hazzard.
On the whole, the marketplace lacks furniture options that appeal to both men and women in terms of function. For example, men “will always be eager to go out and by the latest and biggest flat-screen TV, whereas women don’t want that to be the dominant element in the room,” says Tom Hazzard, Tracy’s husband and co-owner of Hazz Design in Orange County (Calif.).
As flat screens replaced bulkier tube TVs, armoire-style media cabinets grew scarce, leaving women with few options for concealment. “There’s a new market for something that will hide the TV to create a more formal living space where technology doesn’t dominate,” Tom says. He and Tracy taught a “GenderBlending” seminar July 31 at Las Vegas Market, a furniture industry trade show.
In terms of aesthetics, manufacturers have done a better job lately of offering products that appeal to women, who make the majority of purchasing decisions, without alienating men.
“The fall line of fabrics our sales representatives are showing us have much more masculine appeal than ever,” says interior designer Sharon McCormick, of Durham, Conn. “The wool plaids, houndstooth checks and pinstripes, usually used for men’s suiting, are coming up big.”
With a couple of feminine exceptions, the rooms created by celebrated designers at the 2012 Kips Bay Decorator Show House in New York City followed the “unisex trend,” McCormick adds.
“For my clients, it’s about creating a room with yin and yang – some female elements and some male elements. There’s a fine line in designing this way to keep a proper balance,” McCormick says. “Window treatments are not fussy. For upholstered furniture, textured solids work well, as do paisleys, stripes, geometrics and animal prints. Florals can be used as accents in pillows, rugs and artwork, but with restraint. In furnishings, if skirts are used at all, they are tailored.”
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