Innovative surfaces and functional hardware trends… and what four industry executives told us about where the market is headed.
Last week in Atlanta, The International Woodworking Fair brought a critical perspective to the cabinetry and closet design community.
Remodeling continues to outperform on both residential and commercial jobsites. Fabricators are looking for meaningful labor efficiencies and increased production. Suppliers and OEMs are helping customers navigate tariff uncertainty… rather than avoiding those conversations. And specification cycles stretching into 2027 and 2028 reinforce an important reality: the pipeline being built today can become tomorrow’s growth.
The experiences at this critically important trade show shape what gets built… and which solutions will be specified.
Our team focused on which innovations are suitable for adoption programs designed to help our channel sell, build and grow in the current environment.
EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVES FROM THE FLOOR
Products demonstrate what’s new. Executives inform us why it matters.
K&A conducted executive interviews at IWF and spoke with four industry leaders: Russ Jordan, president of Arauco North America and Joaquin Rojas, director of marketing. Vaughn Johnson, director of marketing at Rev-A-Shelf. As well as Jeff Brown, eastern regional sales manager of GRASS.
THREE TAKE AWAYS THAT WE EXPERIENCED
Innovation must solve something that matters. The executives we spoke with weren’t pursuing innovation simply to be new. They talked about solving meaningful customer problems… from reducing fabrication labor to improving supply-chain reliability and helping customers differentiate.
Adoption takes time, and requires changing behavior. New products don’t instantly become volume products. Specification, education, trial and confidence take time, particularly in an industry where established ways of working can be difficult to change.
The strongest manufacturers help the entire channel succeed. We heard repeatedly about making products easier to understand, specify, sell and buy… while helping distributors, designers, fabricators and other partners create value downstream.
Our takeaway: Innovation creates opportunity. Making it easier for the market to adopt that innovation creates growth.
WATCH: IWF 2026 Executive Perspectives: Where Innovation Meets Opportunity
FUNCTIONAL HARDWARE: Best of Show
Some of the most consequential innovation at IWF wasn’t measured in square feet. It was inside the cabinet, the closet and the drawer box.
HETTICH: FurnSpin
A turning-swiveling fitting that rotates an entire cabinet body, full circle, on its own axis.
Closed becomes open. Inside becomes outside.
One piece of furniture becomes two.
There’s no door swing to clear – which frees up island and walkway space – hosting soft-close and push-to-open functions for handleless design. Recognized at interzum as “Best of the Best” and a recent Red Dot winner. What’s more, Hettich offers an online configurator, so a fabricator can validate whether a design is FurnSpin-ready… before cutting a panel.
GRASS: Nova Pro Scala
Double-wall metal drawers are one of the fastest-growing solutions in the category. And Nova Pro Scala clearly demonstrates why. Slim steel sides and a consistent glide. With stability that challenges typical wood box construction.
For the fabricator… it’s labor savings and lean production.
And in the closet and storage channel – where traction continues to grow – it’s providing a host of innovative solutions.
SALICE: The premium closet system
Salice presented a complete wardrobe program: Concealed hinges with soft-close performance – even customized hangers – in a range of finishes.
Everything coordinated. Everything concealed.
The most complete closet story at the show.
Also worth a look is Salice’s Zero transformable series, pull-out drawer tables that turn a base cabinet into a dining or work surface… without changing the aesthetic.
REV-A-SHELF: Walnut Craftsman Collection
Rev-A-Shelf expanded its Craftsman Collection into walnut: cutlery trays, drawer inserts, waste containers, blind corner optimizers and base pullouts.
In an aspirational wood tone that complements painted, natural and mixed-material cabinetry.
Organization as a design statement… shipped on a responsive, three-day lead time. And it’s a proof point for what we heard on the floor: the inside of the cabinet matters as much as the door front.
SURFACES: BEST OF SHOW
ARAUCO: Quietude Collection
The Prism TFL surface debut addressed a popular emotional target: calm. The Quietude Collection helps to avoid visual overload by offering a cohesive palette… from rift-cut white oak through deep walnut. A complementary brown-black solid anchors the collection. Warm tones. Layered textures. Visual restraint. And quiet luxury. Together they create wellness-driven themes in residential, hospitality and healthcare applications.
EGGER: Decorative Collection 26+ … and NaturePanel
Aligning TFL, laminate and edge banding with Egger’s Decor Match System, the new Decorative Collection 26+ offered a range of woodgrains, uni colors and PerfectSense matt and gloss finishes. Clearly, “beige is the new white.” And linear, Italian-style wood surface styles are having a moment.
But the product that piqued our team’s interest most belonged to NaturePanel… wrapping Egger’s HPL wipe-clean surface into a fully waterproof wall panel. Tongue-and-groove installation. No grout. Abrasion and mold resistance. With finishes that read as real oak and walnut, sapwood and knots included. At last, the warmth of wood without the maintenance. Bringing bathrooms and wet-room surface solutions directly into the cabinet and closet channel.
INNOVATION IS THE BEGINNING… ADOPTION CREATES GROWTH
IWF reinforced our team’s experience that spans some four decades. That is, manufacturers aren’t short on innovation.
The harder challenge is turning that innovation into adoption.
That requires more than a successful launch.
Audiences must understand the value. Sales teams need a compelling story. Distributors and channel partners require confidence. Designers and specifiers demand reasons to change. Most importantly… an innovation must solve a problem and address an unmet need.
The products that caught our attention at IWF aren’t simply new. Rather, each has the potential to change behavior. That’s commercialization. And it’s where innovation becomes growth.
LOOKING AHEAD
We’re looking forward to join our client partners, editors, and industry influencers in the channel’s leading trade shows this fall, including GlassBuild America and the International Pool | Spa | Patio Expo. And it’s not too early to begin planning for IBS/KBIS.
But a successful show is only one moment in the commercialization journey.
Whether you’re launching an innovation, building channel support or working to accelerate adoption of a product already in market, K&A helps building-product and home-product brands turn innovation into growth.
Have an innovation that deserves greater market adoption?
Let’s talk.
Send an email to Steve at sk@kleberandassociates.com to get the conversation started.
