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With both their customers and employees in mind, Nowco Home Hardware dealer-owners Deanna and Tyler Nowochin embarked on a store remodeling project that added a new shopping destination for customers and office space for employees.
Named The Loft, the new space in the Nowochin’s store features housewares, gifts and home decor and opened in March 2024. The Nowochins say feedback from customers has been overwhelmingly positive so far, with customers appreciating the wide variety of products in The Loft.
The Nowochins wanted the space to reflect a number of niches that work well together.
“Many times speciality stores don’t survive because they can’t draw enough customers in the market. We feel like The Loft combines a number of niches that work well together,” Tyler says. “We’re not a bedding store, but we have bedding. We’re not a baby store, but we have baby products. We’re not a men’s clothing store, but we have a men’s clothing line. These are all niches needed in our community, and they all support our operation overall.”
Along with offering unique products, the Nowochins wanted the space to be aesthetic and easy to shop. The space includes five themed vignettes which provide shopping inspiration and make the space fun to shop. The vignette themes are men’s products, candles, bathroom, children and baby and a nautical theme one, which will change seasonally. The rest of The Loft features accent furniture, lamps, home textiles, kitchenware, gourmet food and candy and more.
The Nowochins partnered with a local interior designer Carole Harasym to lead the design of The Loft. Carole had been decorating the windows of the store and was doing such a great job with the windows that the Nowochins wanted to bring her onboard for The Loft.
“She was the missing puzzle piece to make this plan successful,” Deanna says. “Even though she’s never done retail before, she has such an eye for merchandising and displays.”
Carole also took over the buying duties for the new space. Deanna says she and Tyler gave Carole the store’s vendor list and log-in information for all their websites, and she spent six weeks building shopping carts of products for The Loft.
“We had final say on the buying, but really appreciated the vision she had for the new space and her taking the reins on helping us get the space ready for customers,” Deanna says.
The creation of The Loft also included additional renovations to create a space for employees. The Nowochins took over the empty building space next to the store after that business decided not to renew its lease. That business had done massive renovations to create office spaces, so the Nowochins saw it as the perfect opportunity to create the employee space they’ve been wanting.
The staff area has a lunch room, break space, offices for Tyler, Deanna and the store manager, a boardroom, bathroom, training area and air conditioning, something the store has never had before.
“The new space is amazing for them too,” Tyler says.
