HW Homes opening store at FlatIron Crossing mall

BOULDER – A home store that opened on the Pearl Street Mall last year is expanding with a second location at the new FlatIron Crossing mall, opening in Broomfield in August.

In the meantime, HW Home has been busy expanding its presence downtown. Originally, the shop was located at 1915 Pearl St. It has since moved to a larger, 3,000-square-foot store at 1941 Pearl St., just up the street from the original location.

Co-owner Ron Werner said the new store features open spaces and dramatic room designs. “We design small vignettes so you get a feeling of how the furniture will look in your home,” he said, which is helpful because Werner and his partner, Jim Hering, have furniture for all tastes.

The store houses eclectic, urban styles as well as contemporary and modern sets and some antiques. “It’s an incredible mix,” Werner said. “Our idea is that you never be stuck in one mode but create a personal and comfortable feel. Most of our staff are trained designers, and we can go into homes and provide design consultation.” The Boulder location currently has 14 employees.

Covering some 3,500 square feet, the Broomfield store will open Aug. 11 at FlatIron Crossing. “It will be a similar mix of what we’re doing here,” Werner said. “The market here has responded very well to what we do,” he added.

And not just because of the pace of growth. “We provide an interesting mix,” Werner said. “You get the look and feel of a polished design-center showroom. But we’ve delivered it with incredible value, much more moderate price points.”

Werner said HW Home prices are competitive with those at national retailers like Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel and the store has made a serious commitment to inventory so that furniture pieces can be delivered immediately.

“We have some significant warehousing in east Boulder,” Werner said, which adds to the store’s ability to serve customers in a timely manner. A couple who bought a cocktail table at 5:30 on a Tuesday night, for instance, saw the table delivered to their home the following morning, he said.

HW Home carries the upholstery line Mitchell Gold, which includes upholstered furniture and leather pieces. It also carries Mike’s Furniture of San Francisco, a premium line that is available only at 12 design-center showrooms around the country and only at 10 retailers nationwide.

Before starting HW Home, Hering managed Holly Hunt Ltd., a 50,000-square-foot design showroom with 300 lines of couture furniture in Chicago. He supervised some 110 employees. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Hering got into the design business after college while he was working in Los Angeles. “I did course work at UCLA in interior design and decided that would be my focus,” he said.

Hering worked in interior design for several years before moving to Chicago to manage the Holly Hunt Ltd. showroom. He managed that facility for two years before he and Werner embarked on their project in Boulder.

“Our definite focus is residential, but we do some commercial work, too,” Hering said. “A lot of our designs can be flexible. We have done a couple local offices and conference rooms and lobbies.”

In January 1998, he and Werner came to Boulder to help decorate Hering’s sister’s home. “There was no place to shop in Boulder or Denver,” Werner said. “We decided we should just move to Boulder and open a home store.”

Werner brings a business background to the company. He was a senior vice president of brokerage firm Solomon Smith Barney in Chicago for 12 years.

“I was the No.2 producer in Illinois for Smith Barney,” he said. But despite his success in the brokerage business, Werner said he had had his fill of it and wanted to move on to other areas.

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