Faithful Home caters to LDS

Furniture store offers items that inspire and uplift

Values and fashion are often at odds, like all-you-can-eat salad.

In the realm of home decor, consumers trying to find stylish accoutrement often find themselves on the lip of a black void, according to Heather Carson and Adabelle Carson. So the Carsons founded Faithful Home Collection, a West Jordan-based Web company (www.faithfulhome.com) that launched last month and offers home decorations, furnishings and gift items for the modern LDS home.

"In our opinion, up till now only one style has been represented in LDS furnishing and gifts," Heather Carson said. "If that style didn't suit you, then you were out of luck. You had to choose between your style or your faith. We wanted to have both. We wanted to have access to the designs and styles of today's decorating trends, but we wanted them to also be meaningful."

Much of what Faithful Home Collection offers is tailored to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but not all. The "Nauvoo" home furnishing line, for example, does not appear to bear markings that would set it apart as religiously based furniture. And the "Parley's Journal," a leather-bound notebook of hand-torn paper, seems likewise multidenominationally appropriate.

"If it's in our store, it has to have substance," Carson said. "It has to uplift, remind and inspire in some way — whether through a shape reminiscent of pioneer heritage, an updated design of an old icon, or just a fresh way to display or commemorate something important to you and your family."

Faithful Home offers 500 products, including furniture, art, photography, frames, quilts, home accents, pillows, rugs, jewelry, leather journals, bath and body and seasonal items.

"I think that LDS retailers have tapped into everything from clothes to books," she said. "In our opinion the only thing lacking has been home decor and specialty gifts.

"The LDS Church places great emphasis on home and family and encourages expressions of faith with art of all kinds with their annual art competition. Faithful Home Collection seemed to us a great marriage of the two."

Since its launch on Oct. 8, Carson said the company has seen "steady" growth both in site visits and product sales, mostly through word of mouth and Internet search listings.

"With the numbers we have so far, we are on track to reach 1 million unique page views in our first quarter," she said. "With our added marketing and advertising strategies, our goal is to increase those views and receive one order for every 100 unique hits."

Going forward, Carson said Faithful Home will push to expand its Web presence and offer a print catalog of its merchandise. It is also hoping to expand its product offering to include pottery, sculpture and other one-of-a-kind pieces.

"We hope to expand our store to buy from and sell to countries around the world," she said. "An artist or craftsperson with LDS products in Africa, Asia, South America or anywhere else could sell their piece to an LDS customer half a world away."

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E-mail: jnii@desnews.com

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