Western Nevada Supply's new showroom aims to ‘inspire’ customers to remodel

Rick Reviglio once promised one of his longest-tenured employees, Gine Nowaczewski, that Western Nevada Supply would finally get a new home-furnishings showroom.

Now, with the December opening of the company’s sparkling new 8,000-square-foot Inspire Kitchen and Bath Showroom in Sparks, Reviglio finally made good on that promise.

“For 30 years, we wanted to have this kind of showroom,” Reviglio said. “Between focusing on other aspects of the business and other things that came up, we never made it off the ground. It was time to make the investment.”

Western Nevada Supply was originally founded in 1964 by Reviglio’s late father Jack, and Bill Higgins, as a plumbing supply shop on Glendale Avenue in Sparks.

The previous showroom, situated upstairs in Western Nevada Supply’s existing building at 950 S. Rock Boulevard in Sparks, was barely adequate, Reviglio admits. Among the inconveniences, he said guests had to walk up what even he called a “treacherous” staircase just to get to the showroom.

Reviglio explained the company wanted to wait until it was financially sound before it took on such a project. They learned some hard lessons about spending and borrowing money during hard times, including the recession.

“We told ourselves we’ll never have the kind of debt we had in the past,” Reviglio said. “This time it was about saving up and prioritizing our capital expenses to plan for this project.”

Reviglio declined to disclose the cost of the project that started last January and took 10 months to complete.

Once he and his staff felt comfortable going forward with the concept, they visited showrooms in at least 15 major markets around the world to get ideas. The cities they visited included New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Venice, Italy.

Don Mackey Architecture, a local firm, designed the new building. Another local company, Dianda Construction, was the general contractor. All but one contractor were local. David Hawkins Design Management in Ohio served as interior designer.

Paintings adorn the sales offices and inspiration quotations are strategically placed around showroom walls to inspire customers.

To accommodate the larger showroom, Western Nevada Supply added a front desk receptionist and doubled its sales staff from four to eight. Nowaczewski has been part of the sales staff for 20 years.

Reviglio touts the Inspire showroom as at the level of any in the United States, even internationally.

“I would put this up against anyone. It has that ability,” Reviglio said. “Before, if you wanted to go to a showroom like this you might have to go to someplace like San Francisco.”

Since the showroom opened in December, Reviglio said customers have already come from parts of California and as far away as Elko.

The Inspire showroom features dozens of different styles of sinks, faucets, toilets and bathtubs. Very modern additions include a towel rack that doubles as a heating agent to keep towels warm, for instance.

At demonstration stations, customers can try out such things as 48 different working shower heads from multiple brands..

“We probably have at least 25 bath tubs, along with 30 different toilets, and around 200 sinks and 20 vanities,” said Jeff Mecca, manager of the Inspire showroom.

Western Nevada Supply called its new showroom “Inspired” to entice customers not only to shop for a simple home project, but to offer inspiration for major home renovations.

“We cover the whole spectrum from the tight budgets to those with high end homes,” Reviglio said.

The new showroom is the final step on a two-year long process to update Western Nevada Supply’s existing building, which has included new signage, work on the façade and the addition of a new paint division.

The old 3,000-square-foot showroom eventually will be converted into a conference room plus an employee training area, or used for other purposes.

For more information on Western Nevada Supply and the Inspire Kitchen & Bath Showroom, go to www.goblueteam.com.