Some of the best design conversations this fall happened close to home. In October, our team headed to Raleigh for Design Matters, a three-day celebration of design, art and lifestyle, and we were proud to return as stage sponsor. This was our third year taking part and our second on the stage, and it remains one of the gatherings we look forward to most.
A stage set like a room
Raleigh designer Kate Hutchison of kate h. designs created this year’s stage, and she treated it like a room you’d want to linger in. A garden-print screen formed the backdrop, framed by gilded wheat sconces, with a bold hydrangea painting hung above our Ciborium Chest of Drawers. Our tufted chair, newly recovered in soft lavender, joined a pair of skirted chartreuse chairs around a whitewashed oval coffee table. The finishing layers came from our Shagreen Books in Marlin and Gatsburg Shagreen Boxes in Osprey White. Hydrangeas, roses and bells of Ireland spilled over the edge of the stage, and seeing our pieces at home in front of designers from across the Southeast never gets old.
Conversations worth sitting down for
On October 8, design tastemaker, author and This Oak House founder Annie Meyers-Shyer headlined the keynote luncheon, in conversation with VERANDA editor in chief Steele Marcoux. Between sessions, guests wandered through tablescapes overflowing with flowers, pattern and color, and caught up with friends old and new.
Design with a purpose
What brings us back each year is the cause behind it. Design Matters benefits the Fitch Family Comprehensive Pediatric Rehabilitation Program at UNC Children’s. The program grew from one family’s experience navigating pediatric rehabilitation after their son sustained a traumatic brain injury, and it works to expand access to specialized rehabilitation care for children across North Carolina.
That story resonated with us from the start, after Steadman Lanier, our vice president of marketing, and Mickey Sharpe, our vice president of design and creative, met with the Design Matters organizers to learn more.
“The focus on creating a beautifully presented, multifaceted event caught our attention, but Design Matters goes well beyond that. It is a thoughtfully designed experience that brings an extraordinary group of designers together in our own backyard. Just as important, it gives us an opportunity to invest in the Fitch Family Comprehensive Pediatric Rehabilitation Program and help expand access to care for North Carolina families.” — Steadman Lanier
“Design is at its best when it creates connection, and that is what Design Matters does so well. Designers leave inspired by the work, the conversations and one another, but the event also channels that energy toward something larger than our industry.” — Mickey Sharpe
Time to connect
For a company whose customers are rooted in the interior design trade, Design Matters offers something rare: real time to talk, away from the pace of a traditional furnishings market. Coming just ahead of Fall High Point Market, it gave us a chance to catch up with designers, editors and industry friends, and it reminded us how generously this community supports and inspires one another. (For a look at what came next, see Market Moments: A Look Inside Fall 2026 HPMKT.)
All proceeds benefit the FITCH FAMILY COMPREHENSIVE PEDIATRIC REHABILITATION PROGRAM at UNC CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL.
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