Furniture Gourmet spices up home decor

Furniture Gourmet, founded in 2002, offers décor that adds a little spice to homes’ interiors. Karen Parry founded the business on the philosophy that the difference between gourmet food and everyday meals is often a matter of minor details, and a little spice can make an immense difference. She applies that belief when selecting items to sell on her company’s Web site, www.furnituregourmet.com.

“I have always thought that even if a home isn’t fancy or large, it’s so important to make it our own. So it was that passion combined with the possibilities that the Internet offered that led us to start the Furniture Gourmet,” said Parry, a shareholder in the corporation along with her husband Ron Parry and daughter Jennifer Yarbrough.

Parry said Furniture Gourmet sells accents and smaller pieces but generally not furniture. One exception is the locally crafted ottoman Parry offers as a tribute to influential modern designer Billy Baldwin.

Parry declined to disclose revenues for her company, though she said that it has grown by double-digit percentages every year since 2002.

This growth, according to Parry, is the result of years of refining the product line and working to gain visibility among a slew of online competitors. “When we started, I focused on carrying different styles of décor – tropical, contemporary, Asian – but what I found was that people are not searching for styles of décor, they are searching for the little accents like containers and faux fruit and ideas on how to use them,” she said.

Parry and Yarbrough look for unique items at market. The company gets in front of potential customers through a combination of natural placement and paid search placement.

Christian Holt, an interior designer at Boston-based Mark Bombra Interior Design, discovered Furniture Gourmet while looking for items to fit his clients’ tastes.

“We had a couple of clients that wanted some faux fruit accessories for their house, and we couldn’t find anything locally. We had one of our interns research. They did a Web search and up popped her company and one other,” Holt said. “We ordered some samples and liked hers better – they looked more realistic.”

Items such as faux fruit have given Furniture Gourmet national appeal, Parry said.

“At first, our customers were mostly from the Northwest and California; now we have customers from all over the country,” she said. “Most of our customers are residential clients, but we have sold to photographers and ad agencies who use our products for photo shoots; we recently sold some of our faux peppers to a restaurant in Manhattan.”

Nina Mann, co-owner of Pearlé Crique Antiques in Ozark, happened upon Furniture Gourmet online, leading to a wholesale agreement. Mann said that working with Furniture Gourmet has been beneficial to her business, because she can wholesale without buying massive quantities of products, and she is able to avoid the cost of shipping by picking up items directly from Parry.

Parry now is considering adding catalog sales. “We also want to go more into the manufacturing and hope to find local craftspeople with unique items to feature on our Web site,” she said.