Smith & Sons Carpets
The Project
A refreshed website for a long-established Exeter flooring company, combining a more premium visual direction with a new online product catalogue.
Smith & Sons Carpets is a family-run flooring specialist established in Exeter in 1986, supplying and installing domestic and commercial flooring across Devon and the wider South West.
Having worked with the business previously on their identity, I was brought back in to redesign and rebuild their website. The existing site had served them for a number of years, but its appearance was beginning to feel disconnected from the newer print materials, signage and wider brand.
The aim was to bring the website up to date without losing the familiarity and heritage of an established local business, while making it much easier for customers to explore the extensive range of flooring available from their Exeter showroom.
The challenge
The existing website had not been substantially updated for some time and no longer reflected the direction the Smith & Sons brand had taken across its printed materials and physical signage.
Rather than starting again with a completely new identity, the project was about evolving what was already there. I retained the existing logo, which I had originally designed for the business, while introducing a refreshed colour palette, new typography and a more refined visual system.
A serif typeface was introduced to give the site a greater sense of heritage and quality, balanced with a clean contemporary layout and large-format interior photography.
There was also a practical challenge: Smith & Sons carries a significant range of flooring products in its showroom, but the previous website didn’t give potential customers an effective way to explore those products before visiting.
Creating an online showroom
One of the largest additions to the website was a new flooring catalogue.
Rather than building a traditional ecommerce shop, the website works more like a digital showroom. Customers can browse different flooring categories, brands and individual ranges, giving them a much clearer idea of what Smith & Sons stocks before visiting the showroom or requesting a quote.
Products are managed through a custom post type in WordPress and organised into flooring categories including carpet, luxury vinyl tiles and wood.
Individual product pages can display product imagery, information and either a specific price or price on application, depending on the range. Customers are then encouraged to enquire or visit the physical showroom rather than complete a purchase online.
That structure suits the way flooring is actually sold: customers can research styles and price points online while still benefiting from samples, measuring, advice and professional installation in person.
The live site now also surfaces flooring by brand and includes dedicated offers and remnants, helping customers discover more of the range available through the business.
Design and development
The previous website was already built using Elementor, so rather than unnecessarily moving the client onto a completely different system, I upgraded the existing WordPress and Elementor setup and rebuilt the site’s core pages within it.
This allowed the website to retain a familiar editing environment while significantly improving the front-end design and expanding what the site could do.
Alongside the Elementor build, I created the custom product structure, developed reusable page layouts, added bespoke CSS where greater control over the theme and responsive behaviour was required, and prepared and optimised imagery throughout the site.
Because I continue to manage the website for Smith & Sons, I also maintain the product catalogue and make ongoing content and product updates as their showroom ranges change.
A website that reflects the business
The finished website feels much more aligned with Smith & Sons as it exists today: an established independent flooring company with decades of experience, a substantial physical showroom and a wide mix of domestic and commercial work.
Large interior imagery puts the flooring itself at the centre of the experience, while the typography and restrained palette give the site a more premium, established character.
The website now acts as both an introduction to the business and an extension of the Exeter showroom, allowing customers to research flooring, understand available services and explore products before getting in touch.
Smith & Sons currently promotes domestic and commercial supply and fitting, an Exeter showroom, flooring ranges and services across Exeter, Devon and the wider South West.
