For Baptiste Ltd owner Sacha Bearden, the best thing about the home improvement store’s recent remodel and expansion is hearing customers say: “Now I don’t have to go to town!”Before the renovation and launch of a number of new product lines Baptiste often did not have everything contractors and other customers needed, said Ms Bearden’s sister and buying and design assistant Sonja Oliveira.Now the Warwick store sells everything from electrical, lighting and housewares to small appliances, patio furniture and Valspar paint. You’ll even find trendy lunch boxes and bedding.The new look is thanks to Orgill Inc, a leading US-based provider of wholesale distribution, hard lines and retail services to the home improvement industry.Ms Bearden, who was seeing a “dramatic” drop in business as the construction boom began to go bust, was looking for ways to grow the business and survive the recession.She was put in touch with Orgill after a chance meeting in her store with the head of AL Thompson’s home goods chain in the Cayman Islands. A major focus of Orgill is ensuring the stores it supplies are profitable and well-designed.The new housewares and home decor section has been a “big hit”, especially among female customers, Ms Bearden said. Orgill suggested the addition of the “soft lines” and high-tech paint “bar” after noticing on one of its store visits that more than half of Baptiste’s customers were women.The Valspar line consists of interior and outdoor paint suitable for Bermuda home exteriors.“Ours is the newest paint-matching machine on the Island,” Ms Oliveira said, adding they can scan any swatch or even an item a customer brings in and match it to a paint colour within minutes.They also sell the Cabot opaque and semi-opaque wood stain line that’s become very trendy, Ms Oliveira said. Both Ms Oliveira and Ms Bearden and other staff have received training in paint mixing and paint selection.Ms Bearden said the store was expanding by 2,000 square feet as part of a “reassignment of space”, formerly used as a warehouse.The new larger store has more room to show off its designer kitchen and bathroom models, ceiling fans and outdoor furniture.The aisles are wider and cleaner and display shelves well-stocked and appealing.In fact, Ms Bearden points out, the new Baptiste store now has “browsers”, whereas before it was mainly contractors and customers on a mission who came through their doors.Ms Oliveira pointed out, however, Baptiste was very much still a contractor store given they now stock a much wider selection of building supplies than before, including what’s known as “rough” plumbing and electrical parts, and also better tools, different hoses and so on.She said “easy fixes” such as lighting, faucets, bath towels and mats, and hardware have become increasingly popular as people look to redecorate and renovate on a budget.And as homeowners look to spruce up their apartments to attract tenants they are looking to make simple cost-effective upgrades.“Our in-stock ready-to-be-assembled kitchen sells like crazy,” Ms Oliveira said.Other trends in the home improvement industry, she said, include: glass tiles for back splashes, walls etc, stainless steel “everything”, “smart” products such as over-the-door hooks, storage solutions and closet organisers.As Ms Bearden and Ms Oliveira point out, not only is the store run by women, more than half the company’s 17 staff are women and none is afraid of getting their hands dirty, unpacking, lifting, restocking, cleaning, even sanding and painting as many did when the store underwent its renovation.“We all wear two or more hats here,” said Ms Oliveira.Ms Bearden bought Baptiste from her father back in May 2008, just as the construction boom was ending.Having managed the business for years before her father Ray Baptiste retired, she was used to the days where dozens of doors and windows, toilets and sinks flew out the store daily. It was tough to keep in stock all the supplies needed by contractors, she recalled.But the downward spiral in construction began to take its toll on the business soon after she became owner.“The end of the construction boom was dramatic and scary,” Ms Bearden said. “Sales of building supplies went way down. The days of selling 30 windows, 20 doors and five bathrooms in a day were gone.”Ms Baptise said it became apparent there was a chance the company may not survive if they remained a specialised building supplies store.“We had to get creative,” she said.While she hired contractors for the major renovation work required to expand, much of the work was carried by Ms Bearden herself along with her sister, staff, and their circle of family and friends who came in many nights to get the store ready. Baptiste never closed during the renovation and expansion.The sisters, relatives, friends and staff pitched in on everything from spray-painting display stands and walls, to unpacking and stacking merchandise.Ms Bearden even painted the new parking bay markers herself.“If something could get done by us we did it. We even tried it when it couldn’t get done by us,” she laughs.The store’s opening hours are now 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 5pm on Saturdays.