Shelter Magazine Digest

As futon retailers across America, your customers are the consumers who read the major home, decorating and lifestyle magazines. The titles in this “shelter” magazine category inspire your customers with ideas and dreams for their homes. After poring over magazines and catalogues for hours, those consumers then shop your store looking to make those dreams a reality. Our goal for this section is to help prepare you to know about and have on hand what futon consumers will be looking for.

Here's a quick overview of the ideas, products and trends that major shelter magazines are showcasing.

Our hope is that this section will send you to the newsstand in pursuit of staying on top of the design and décor realm. We have included demographic information for each magazine so that you can quickly pinpoint which ones might appeal most to your store’s target demographic. You can then incorporate the latest looks into your merchandise mix and product displays. Ultimately, the consumer will benefit by more easily being able to create the homes they can see in their imaginations.

In this issue: Metropolitan Home, Architectural Digest, Better Homes & Gardens, Domino
 

Metropolitan Home
Description: “With an emphasis on innovative architecture and fresh interiors, Metropolitan Home manages to present a spectrum of designs from entirely contemporary to eclectic mixes to marriages of the classic with the cutting edge.”

Circulation: 615,230

Demographics:
Gender: 74% female
Median Age: 41.9
Median HH Income: $68,653

December 05/January 06 Issue
Editorial: High|Low – two dining rooms, one done for $32k and the other for $6k
Colors: Purple (violet, grape–deeper take on fall’s lavender trend)
Prints: Exotic flora/fauna on wallpaper
Furniture: Low profile in neutral colors
Textures: Heavily textured carpets and rugs (cotton shag, seagrass, Astroturf…)
Styles: Old/new; mix eras, styles, materials

Architectural Digest
Description: “Architectural Digest is the definitive design magazine, providing a vision that stretches our readers’ imaginations and sets new benchmarks for the life they wish to live…”

Circulation: 812,892

Demographics:
Gender: 55% female
Median Age: 48.6
Median HH Income: $128,000

January 06 Issue
Editorial: Designers’ secrets (extensive interviews with many top designers)
Colors: Black (on walls), turquoise, terra cotta
Prints: Damask, paisley, stripes
Textures: Ornate details on ceilings; mix rough and smooth textures
Styles: Mix high and low cost items in a room

Better Homes and Gardens
Description: “Better Homes and Gardens encompasses a unique mix of subjects that separates it from other magazines. Making life better for the most important people in our readers’ lives — their family and friends — in the most important place in their lives — their homes — is our magazine’s mission.”

Circulation: 7.6 million

Demographics:
Gender: 78% female
Median Age: 47
Median HH Income: $58,663

January 06 Issue:
Editorial: “Cover Yourself in Red” The rooms featured compliment the red tones through the use of natural tones in color and form.
Accents: International accessories
Textures: Rough Venetian plaster on walls; shaggy upholstery fabrics

Domino
Description: “The new shopping magazine for your home. Domino is not your mother’s home magazine: the first and only home design source edited for the style seeker who shops for her home as she does her wardrobe–mixing an array of pieces and price points that underscore her individualistic style.”

Circulation: 400,000

Demographics:
Gender: 85% female
Median Age: 35.4
Median HH Income: $77,679

Dec 05 Issue
Editorial: Instant Guest Room–Planned timeline for transforming a spare room into a marvelous guest room between Monday and Saturday. Includes a “how she did it,” showing: 1. What she bought, 2. Where it came from, 3. How much it cost, 4. How to order.
Colors: Purple everywhere; black walls; combinations of blue and brown or blue and cream.

FL