Christian Alexander offers constantly changing selection of home décor

By Amanda Larch

For The Ironton Tribune

ASHLAND. Ky. — What’s in a name? For Johnathan Jordan, an entire business enterprise. 

With a dream of opening his own home décor shop, Jordan combined his two middle names, Christian and Alexander, knowing it would make the perfect business name. 

“It just sounded like a good name, like a home décor store,” he says.

Combining his Kentucky roots with his California education, Jordan created and opened Christian Alexander Home, a quality goods, gifts, home décor and furnishings store, also offering seasonal and holiday items. 

Specializing in luxury goods with affordable prices, Jordan relocated

from Mount Dora, Florida, to Ashland, Kentucky a few years ago.

“I opened up the business in 2017 in South Florida,” Jordan says. “I was there for a little over a year and a half, and then I relocated to Kentucky to be closer to             my family.”

Jordan went to school at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles for interior design, earning his associate of arts degree, and, with his background and eye for design, he has found success            in business. 

When doing orders for brands such as Lafco NY, a home fragrance and body care company, Jaqua Bath and Body, Capri Blue, Classic Home, Fitz and Floyd and more, Jordan places order minimums — that way, there is no repeat of product, he says, which was a key inspiration behind opening Christian Alexander Home in the first place.

“Once that product collection sells out, a new collection comes in, and you have less opportunity of somebody else having the exact same product as what you just purchased,” Jordan explains. 

“That’s what I search for, is to be able to bring pieces into your home that are more unique and something that you can’t find everywhere else,” he says. 

One of the most popular and fastest selling product lines is Capri Blue home and bath fragrances, especially the Volcano scent that some customers may recognize from Anthropologie stores, Jordan says. 

“We expanded it, not just in candles, we have the body care in it, and we have the laundry detergent and all that as well,” he says. 

Jordan also partners with local and regional businesses to provide their products to his clientele, such as spices from Morehead, Kentucky and a bourbon line of spices made in Louisville, Kentucky. 

He also sells olive wood cutting boards, handmade in Ashland, and handmade leather valet trays, coasters and keychains made by Forme and Ash Trading Company, exclusively for Christian Alexander Home.

“We have started working with people who are in the area to be able to sell products that are made locally,” Jordan says. “We have a whole new collection just come in that’s made in Ashland, so we try to keep that local business alive, if we can, and help each other out.”

Another aspect of Jordan’s business is offering consultations. Clients can bring in photos of rooms in their home or business and their inspiration behind what they want, and Jordan will take it from there to work his magic. 

He recently completed aesthetics for The Nest in downtown Russell, bringing in that community impact once more. 

“They needed some Christmas decorations, so they sent a couple inspirations like, ‘This is our concept of what we were thinking of, can we do something?’” he recalls. “I ran with it and came up with this over-the-top wrap that goes around the door, and it had about 600 ornaments inside of — it was just completely flooded with color. It was beautiful. I like those things; I love a challenge.”

The community support has been wonderful since he opened, Jordan says. In fact, regular customers more often than not feel more like family. 

“I have customers come in all the time and, the first thing they do is give me a hug, and that’s a great response for me, that they feel that comfortable,” he says. “I love that.”

With experience working at big brand retail outlets, Jordan says the freedom to not only be creative, but the ability to have full creative control is his favorite aspect of owing his own business, and as the only employee, his self-reliance and self-discipline keep the shop in          perfect order.

“I do everything: my ordering, my displaying, my floral arrangements; I do it all,” Jordan says. “For me, number one, it’s freedom, to be able to be creative and to do what I know I can do.” 

“I’ve worked for big corporations, but you always have to go into their vision line,” he continued. “It’s hard sometimes to step outside that corporate vision scale, but here, it allows me to step outside of that and be able to do other things I know are possible within my own crazy world that I live in, in my mind. Because I come up with inspirations in my sleep, so it’s nice.”

Some of Jordan’s biggest inspirations in his life and career are studying architecture, with a penchant for the old and historic. 

“That is what inspires me to be able to do what I do every day,” Jordan says. “I watch videos nonstop on abandoned mansions, how they ever got abandoned, how they were made 300 years ago and why they were built.”

Jordan’s personal style is a mix of modern contemporary, with a little bit of traditional.

“Because I came from Kentucky, I still have that classic, that traditional style that’s always in the back of me,” he says. “But, living in California, you have that modern take on things. It’s nice to be able to put the         two together.”

As Christian Alexander Home changes each season, bringing in new and unique top-of-the-line items, Jordan says he also gets new product in about every two weeks to keep things fresh and exciting. 

“There’s always going to be something new,” he says.

Christian Alexander Home is located in Suite 102 at 1505 Carter Ave. in Ashland and is open Tuesdays through Fridays, from 11 a.m.-6 p.m., and Saturdays, from 11 a.m.- 4 p.m.