What do you get when you combine high style, an eclectic product mix, refreshing taste, passionate owners and employees and a loyal customer base? You get WHFA’s 2010 Western Retailer of the Year, HW Home based out of Boulder, CO.

In 1998, co-founders Jim Hering and Ron Werner visited Ron’s sister in Boulder to design the interior of her new home and immediately saw an opportunity to bring fashion-forward designs and styles to the area. “The true reason we opened the store is because we saw a need,” said Jim. “We were researching and scouting local shops to furnish Ron’s sister’s home, and we realized there was a void in the market. We had been toying with the idea of doing something in Chicago, but when we came out to Colorado and saw how beautiful it was, we decided to seize a very great economic opportunity.”

“I vividly remember the first time I fell in love with homes; I was five and at a birthday party at a home in Virginia Country Club in Long Beach,” said Chrysteen Braun. Fifteen years after opening her full service interior design company, Aegean Designing Whims, Chrysteen still feels the same way about homes. Designing Whims offers its customers just about anything they would need for their home: window coverings, kitchen and bath remodeling, floor coverings, upholstery, accessories, furniture and design.

Homes were a large part of Chrysteen’s childhood. Her parents, Nick and Mary Patridis, owned Nick Patridis Painting, Damis Construction and later Aegean Floor Coverings. It made sense then after 25 years of specializing in insurance restoration that Chrysteen, and her husband Larry, would begin their own business that focused on people’s homes. Not knowing quite what they were in for, Chrysteen and Larry learned to operate their business by trial and error. “It wasn’t the best way to operate a business. Customers would ask for a new service, and we would add it to what we did. Slowly we evolved into a full service interior design company,” she said.

Every day when customers walk through the doors of Fiesta Furnishings or Brix Home in Scottsdale, AZ, they are transported out of the desert and into places full of unique, high-end home furnishings and accessories. While each store has distinctly different styles — Fiesta Furnishings has an Old World, Spanish Colonial feel while Brix Home offers desert urban contemporary furnishings — they both focus on creating one-of-a-kind homes for their customers. “Customer’s can’t go anywhere else in the city and find what we have in either store,” said owner Claudia LeClair. “We want to make our customers’ homes beautiful and different — not like their next door neighbors’. If we furnished 10,000 homes, they would all be beautiful, but slightly different from the next.”

Inspirational and design oriented, every Ethan Allen location has the same motto, “We can help as little or as much as you like.” Ethan Allen Interior Design Center of Reno is one of approximately 300 Ethan Allen Design Centers in the U.S. and abroad that provides customers with excellence in style, quality, value and personal service.

Most people wouldn’t think of opening a new business in the middle of a recession, let alone open a new home furnishings store in the same location as one that just went out of business after 50 years — but that is exactly what co-owners Ron Anderson, and Don and George Harmon did.

Cypress Furniture in Hayward, CA has been manufacturing upholstered furniture for over 50 years. Originally operating as Umphred’s Furniture, today Cypress Furniture gives each product the time and attention it did when it first opened.

Eleven years ago, Jim Hering and Ron Werner took a trip from Chicago to Colorado to assist Ron’s sister in a home renovation. After shopping for furniture, they quickly realized there was a lack of any sophisticated boutique home furnishings stores in the area. They had discussed opening their own boutique design business in the past and saw a great opportunity for a business in Colorado. Jim and Ron decided to leave their current positions, Jim was general manager for Holly Hunt’s design showroom and Ron was senior vice president at Smith Barney, and ventured out west. In 1999, they opened a small 1,600 square foot boutique store called HW Home in Boulder, CO.

To the people who drive Highway 50 in Northern California, Naturwood Home Furnishings has become a landmark of the Sacramento area with their iconic clock tower and waterwheel that can be seen from the freeway at their flagship location in Rancho Cordova. When people think of Naturwood Home Furnishings, they know it is a place synonymous with quality furniture, excellent service, and a warm and inviting family.

Named as the 2009 Western Retailer of the Year, Naturwood Home Furnishings has been family-owned and operated for over 60 years and places a great emphasis on their relationships with their customers, manufacturers and employees. Many employees have been a part of the Naturwood family for over 20 years, and it is apparent that this close-knit group of people enjoys seeing each other every day. Over the years this closely connected team has perfected retailing excellence.