Style in the home is a funny thing. What one person can like, another person can hate. But unlike style when it comes to fashion, where your style choice must only meet your approval, style choices in the home are usually a cooperative effort, needing approval from both you and and your significant other. It’s a truth I’m intimately familiar with, as my wife and I are in the midst of not only a home renovation, but also a style renovation.
When it comes to home style, I tend to favor more of a modern, contemporary feel. Not too contemporary – I don’t mean floating beds and unfinished concrete walls – but more of a contemporary yet still inviting feel. My wife on the other hand, prefers more classic, traditional elements in the home, and has a special affinity for aged, distressed pieces – not necessarily antiques, but pieces that show a certain degree of character. As you can imagine, as much as we both love and respect each others’ personal style, our differences present an immense challenge when it comes to furnishing our home.
To be honest, I truly didn’t think we’d be able to find common ground when it came to our home’s style. Let me rephrase that: initially I thought we’d be able to find common ground when it came to our home’s style, but once we set out to furnish the first room in our house – our bedroom – I quickly realized how wrong I was. There was a clear divide when it came to home style, meaning the pieces we looked at were either distinctly contemporary or distinctly traditional. Everything I picked was too contemporary; everything she picked was too traditional.
Logically, this meant that sooner or later I could forego my dreams of contemporary styling in favor of tradition, because as all men know, women are the deciding factor when it comes to the home. My wife, however (being the perfect wife she is), felt differently, following her conviction that somewhere there existed the mythical blend of traditional and contemporary we could both fall in love with. And then, just when I thought all hope was lost – just when I was ready to abandon my contemporary dreams in favor of her more traditional style – we found it. The Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Collection. The perfect union of contemporary and classic. A blending of woods, metals and materials in more classic shapes, but with an air of modernity, meeting my desire for a contemporary feel while maintaining the character and classic nature of more traditional pieces. Stanley’s Avalon Heights Collection is exactly what we had been searching for.
Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Collection Overview
Defining the Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Collection is difficult, to say the least, because it encompasses so many different style elements. It’s current, but not overly so. It’s relatively casual, but there’s a certain luxuriousness to it as well. Overall, it’s the perfect blending of contemporary with traditional.
Before I go any further, I should note that the Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Collection isn’t merely a bedroom collection, as the title of this story implies. Rather, it’s a collection for the entire home, including the bedroom, living and dining areas and the home office. As of now, I’ve only purchased pieces for the bedroom (which I’ll discuss a little later), but the Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Collection offers the aforementioned blending of contemporary and traditional for the entire home, not just the bedroom.
In looking at Stanley’s Avalon Heights Collection, the first thing that drew both my wife and I to it was the unique shapes of the pieces. Whereas traditional contemporary style tends to be simple, with relatively basic shapes, the Avalon Heights collection makes extensive use of curved and serpentine shapes and projecting friezes, eliminating sharp edges and harsh lines. It’s an effect that makes the Avalon Heights Collection significantly warmer and more inviting than traditional contemporary pieces, but not enough that the style loses its modern feeling. Paired with the unique overall shapes, the Avalon Heights Collection also makes extensive use of Lyre shapes (made famous in Duncan Phyfe chair backs), blending classic shapes into modern designs.
The second element of the Stanley Avalon Heights Collection, and what has become my favorite attribute, is the perfect mixture of materials used throughout the various pieces. Gorgeous woods like cherry, mapa burl and anigre fiddle are paired beautifully with glass and metal, and it’s this combination that plays an integral part in creating Avalon Heights’ contemporary yet still classic look. Further adding to its unique styling, a blanc noir leather and chrome fabric are used on select pieces, adding in additional textures that are luxurious, clean and modern. The result is a collection that despite the uniqueness of each piece, blends together perfectly across the complete range. And that’s really the beauty of Avalon Heights. Pieces can be used interchangeably throughout the house, meaning a table can be used as a night stand, as an accessory table in a living area, or by itself. Chairs can be used in dining areas, or they can serve as extra seating in the bedroom. The entire collection works together beautifully – pieces maintain their individual character, but it flows together beautifully as well.
Lastly, the final defining element of Stanley Furniture’s Avalon Heights Collection lies in the details of the pieces. Helping add a warmer, more traditional feel to the collection, Stanley added various aging to the pieces, including rock, spatter, fly speck, cowtailing and water marks, giving the pieces a more lived in, slightly more casual feeling. Piano scratch distressing on surface tops adds in additional character, as does soft skiving on select surfaces, creating indentations on the wood to give it a ripple effect. In addition to the distressing, smaller architectural and finish details play an integral role in helping achieving Avalon Heights’ gorgeous rich appearance. Carved posts reminiscent of Provencal furniture, collared and fully-turned sabre legs, hidden cedar storage drawers, felt-lined serving drawers – all are features found on the individual furnishings in the collection. Stanley has done an incredible job bringing a richness and beauty to each piece, adding in an incredible amount of detail to the entire Avalon Heights Collection as a whole.
Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Bedroom Collection Overview
In furnishing our new home, my wife and I started with the bedroom, for the very simple reason it’s the last room you see at night and the first room you see in the morning. After a long day, there’s nothing better than having a place you can retreat to that’s calming and relaxing, but at the same time, you want it be stylish the next morning. Waking up to great style instantly puts you in a better mood for the day, and that’s exactly what the Avalon Heights Bedroom Collection offers. It’s warm; it’s elegant; it’s inviting; but it’s also distinctly stylish, reflecting a certain sense of modernity.
In looking at the Avalon Heights Bedroom Collection, it’s almost two bedroom collections in one. There are two main bed designs – one slightly more contemporary, one slightly more traditional – and there are similarly two dresser and chest designs. At one end of the design spectrum, the dressers and chests note a larger, slightly more elegant design, whereas at the other end of the spectrum, dressers and chests are somewhat smaller and slightly less formal. The beauty of the collection, however, is that all the pieces work together beautifully, and because of the varying scales, there’s tremendous flexibility when it comes to furnishing both large and small spaces.
My wife and I loved the larger, slightly more formal designs, and I’ve detailed each of our chosen pieces below, but you can also see photos of the other Avalon Heights bedroom pieces available in the gallery at the end of the article. In truth, they’re all stunning, and no matter which style you choose, you can’t go wrong with anything. The collection is simply incredible, and after living with it for the past two months, I have to say, I absolutely adore everything we purchased.
Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Fair Park Upholstered Storage Bed
The centerpiece of the bedroom, the Avalon Heights Fair Park Upholstered Storage Bed is brilliantly designed, perfectly combining elements of traditional, contemporary and functional design. Noting a gorgeous cherry design with wide panel rails, the taller upholstered headboard is the focal point of the bed, featuring stunning Blanc Noir ivory top-grain leather. It’s overall shape is relatively simple, giving it a more contemporary feel, but it maintains an overall elegance befitting of a New York City penthouse. Topping it off, two large cedar storage drawers with touch latch drawer guides at the foot of the bed maximize functionality, offering the perfect storage space for bedding, pillows, etc.
Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Neo Deco Lamp Table
Probably the most versatile piece in the Avalon Heights Bedroom Collection, the Neo Deco lamp table makes a gorgeous bedside table, but it’s just as much at home in a living area or reading nook. On top, a mapa burl center medallion is one of its strongest design elements, and the lyre-inspired base adds a stunning serpentine shape to the piece. For storage, there’s also a single drawer that blends seamlessly into the Neo Deco lamp table’s design. In person, the Neo Deco lamp table is simply beautiful, offering an incredible finish and details while still maintaining a warm and inviting character.
Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Swingtime Dresser
The key to happiness in the bedroom is ample amounts of storage to ensure everything has its proper place, and the Avalon Heights Swingtime dresser offers plenty: nine storage drawers, to be precise. Best of all, it does so in a beautiful serpentine design – perfectly exemplifying Avalon Heights’ blending of contemporary and traditional. Featuring a gentle curved front with fluted bar pulls, the Swingtime dresser is the perfect mix of modern and classic, and as is the case with the entire Avalon Heights Collection, it adds an approachable elegance to the space. It’s beautiful; it’s functional; it’s inviting; and it’s a gorgeous compliment to the rest of the Avlalon Heights Bedroom Collection.
Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Swingtime Night Stand
The last piece in the Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Collection that my wife and I selected was the Swingtime night stand, the perfect compliment to the Swingtime dresser. Like the Swingtime dresser, the night stand features a subtle serpentine shape, and is complimented by beautifully carved frame posts. For storage, there’s a total of three drawers at your disposal, along with an integrated electrical outlet in the rear to handle lamps, phone charging, etc. Completing its style, a stunning Chelsea finish in cherry and scalloped knobs in tarnished nickel offer a warm, elegant look that perfectly compliments the Fair Park upholstered bed.
Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Collection Conclusion
I know I’m starting to sound redundant, but the Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Collection is the first collection I found that truly manages to bring together contemporary and traditional in a welcoming, warm way. It offers a perfect blend of details, materials and styling, with the end result being a collection that’s extremely approachable. The Avalon Heights Collection isn’t furniture meant to be put on display – it’s a gorgeous collection that’s meant to be lived with… that’s meant to be used. And that’s really the true beauty of Avalon Heights. For all its style, its elegance and its sophistication, it’s truly furniture you can feel comfortable in. And let’s face it: when it comes to the home, and home style in particular, there’s truly nothing more important than being comfortable. In this respect, Stanley’s Avalon Heights Collection has no equal.
To learn more about the Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Collection including a closer look at the various finishes, materials, etc., head over to the official Stanley Furniture website. You can also see select pieces from the Stanley Furniture Avalon Heights Collection including the aforementioned bedroom pieces that I purchased in the gallery below.
