Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Consumer's Eye

Unvarnished wood dresses up auto interiors

Chrysler Firepower and Ford Fairlane concepts use wood for exquisite touch.

By Anita Lienert / Special to The Detroit News

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A popular home decorating trend is making its way into vehicle interiors.

Unvarnished wood -- now one of the favorite decorator touches in upscale homes, especially on French doors and ceiling moldings -- showed up on a couple of key products at the 2005 North American International Auto Show.

Trevor Creed, senior vice president of design for DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group, pointed out the use of light-colored unvarnished maple wood on the Chrysler Firepower concept coupe.

Used as a dramatic counterpoint to the Firepower's piano-black lacquered center stack, the unvarnished wood looks fresh and contemporary and makes the wood trim on most production cars appear dated.

"It replaces the lacquer-y, shiny wood you see on most cars today," Creed explained. "I think we're ready for this kind of look."

The unvarnished wood look even works well on a family-hauler like the Ford Fairlane concept named for Henry Ford's Dearborn estate.

Ford Motor Co. designers trimmed the inside of this futuristic minivan/station wagon with matte maple bentwood laminate in unexpected places -- on the ceiling inserts, for instance.

But instead of piano black lacquer, Ford paired the wood with ivory-colored woven rattan.

This material, which made the cabin look like a high-end picnic basket, was used on the front map pocket. The rattan made by Lloyd Loom, a United Kingdom home décor company that makes woven fiber furniture, also trimmed the door inserts and seat backs.

It was a perfect touch, especially with the mini kitchen built into Fairlane's tailgate.

That unusual tailgate accessory has picnic basket touches: crisscrossed straps for holding plastic plates and glasses, a mini-refrigerator and a built-in cutting board.

Creed pointed out that another key trend popping up at this auto show is a move away from monochromatic black interiors toward wedding-gown tones, especially whites and ivories, on the Firepower and Fairlane.

"We're working on lightening up the interiors," Creed said. "It started on the (Chrysler) 300C and now you are starting to see more contrasting lowers in the cabin. I've already started hearing the complaints, like 'It'll soil.' Yes, but does that mean you'll never buy a beige pair of pants? I see this as a choice we'll begin to offer."

You can reach Anita Lienert at ConsEye@aol.com.