Q: What's the word from the Furniture Capital of the World?

A: It all depends on where you look in High Point, N.C., the largest home furnishings market on earth. Think of l0.5 million square feet of show space in 180 different buildings, where 2,000 manufacturers show their creations to some 80,000 buyers, designers and tastemakers who come from 110 countries twice a year.

That's a lot of looking. But amazingly enough, it is possible to sift through the huge market and come home with a fix on trends in colors and styles, who and what is new and hot for tomorrow's interiors.

Here's what we learned from four days of hard looking and three journals filled with notes:

—Aqua is back. Never mind that Emerald Green is Pantone's Color of the Year; the color of the Spring Market is aqua by any name — turquoise or teal, robin's egg blue or even sea foam if you prefer.

In fact, blues of all hues were all over the market "for the first time in years," according to Charlie Coffey, VP of Sales at Sherrill Furniture. Blue fell off the Color Preference charts nearly a dozen years ago, Coffey said, but it will make quite a splash this fall and beyond, once furniture shown at this spring's market arrives on dealers' floors.

Also new — and into blue — is Aerin Lauder's debut on the home decorating scene (aerin.com). Granddaughter of the cosmetics doyenne and dedicated to the idea that "every woman (and every thing) can be beautiful," Aerin's spring collection was all about the blues, soft periwinkle, hydrangea and aqua, always touched with gold ("Gold is a neutral," she proclaims).

—Animal skins are still in, and climbing even further up the pop charts. Wherever we looked at the market, it was a jungle in there. Animal patterns were everywhere, from the leopard, zebra and tortoise Aerin Lauder previewed for her coming fall collections to the floor lamp John-Richard (johnricard.com) covered in zebra-striped suede.

Designers loved hair-on hides, the shaggier the chic-er. Brazilian cowhide with leopard spots covered Pacific Green's "Kiribati" chair, held with leather ties following the construction method used by people indigenous to Fiji, where the award-winning Australian company (pacificgreen.net) sources its palmwood.

Furniture Your Way (furnitureyourway.com) wrapped its large klismos-style club chair in hair-on-hide and lined it in croc-embossed leather. Along with their tres chic classics, French Heritage (frenchheritage.com) offered a to-die armchair in "zebra" hide and a standing bar-in-a-trunk with a mega-croc finish.

—Nailheads. Yes, they've been used to decorate upholstered furniture for centuries, but now nailhead decorations are showing up on case pieces like chests and desks, too. But forget brass: at this market, it was shiny studs in brushed nickel that added special sparkle to many new pieces.

Rose Bennett Gilbert is the co-author of "Manhattan Style" and six other books on interior design. To find out more about Rose Bennett Gilbert and read features by Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.CREATORS.COM.