Restoration Hardware Considering New Business Line?

In addition to selling upscale home furnishings, Restoration Hardware may soon be selling fully designed and styled upscale homes themselves.

Seriously.

Gary Friedman, CEO of Restoration Hardware, began to invite such talk when he listed his St. Helena, California home on the market for $10.5 million. Friedman describes the house as the first “RH Residence,” and Friedman’s home is outfitted from top to bottom entirely with Restoration Hardware furnishings and fixtures.

And when MarketWatch began to speculate that the sale of Friedman’s home could serve as a trial run for Restoration Hardware to explore the home selling business, he didn’t exactly deny it.

“I do believe there is a void in the market for fully designed and integrated homes that deliver the one thing that none of us can currently buy — time,” Friedman told MarketWatch in an email.

“Friedman … said he paid $5.9 million for the Napa Valley house in 2013 and initially planned to turn it into a place to relax, but then found another house closer to where his company is building RH Yountville, a food, wine, art and design complex,” according to MarketWatch. “Friedman then decided to plow ahead with a two-year remodel of the St. Helena house that is top-to-toe Restoration Hardware. He said he personally led the RH design team, and all the furnishings are RH down to the linens and planters. The wine in the vault is from a business RH bought that sells wine, art and antiques.”

But Friedman told MarketWatch that Restoration Hardware has “no immediate plans” of entering the home sales market. Still, this could be interesting to watch out for down the road.