Longtime Pahrump retailer, Pahrump Rentals and Do It Best Hardware recently expanded its business to include art supplies.
Pahrump Rentals, who has been operating in town since 1994, first opened the roughly 600-square-foot paint and hobby center expansion to customers four months ago and held a grand opening ceremony on Oct. 15. The event was complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony by the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce to mark the ceremonial occasion.
The store carries a wide variety of art supplies, including pastels, oil painting supplies, acrylics, coloring books, colored pencils, calligraphy supplies, air brush materials and more.
Manager Meghan Thomas said that with them selling hardware, home improvement supplies and lawn care, the hobby and paint center addition was brought about by public demand.
“It’s a project that we started back in January, when the property next to us became available to rent,” Thomas said. “We have had a lot of requests for years now for more hobby and art supplies and we finally had an opportunity to do it, so we finally decided to bring it in.”
Thomas herself had been hoping for a business of this nature to come to town for some time, as she’s been into art most of her life and the local options before this have been scarce.
“When I was growing up here in town, I was desperate for anything related to art supplies,” she said. “To have access to stuff that I wanted to learn how to do, paintings and drawings, any of that, there was nothing here in town for people.
“I learned on my own, I spent a lot of time in Vegas, so when we finally had the opportunity to bring something like that out here, I jumped on it.”
Giving area residents the opportunity to obtain art supplies that she was unable to when she was younger is one of the most rewarding aspects of the expansion, Thomas said.
“I love being able to do this for them,” she said.
Since opening their doors to customers at the end of summer, the public response has been great, according to Thomas, as made evident by the large turnout at the ribbon cutting last month.
“It’s been overwhelmingly positive,” Thomas said. “We had an amazing turnout. It was standing room only in the store for most of the day, and our friends down at Java Junkies brought down coffee and teas for us, which pretty much saved our lives because we were all so tired.”
In the future Thomas hopes to expand into other areas of arts and crafts, essentially making it a mini Michael’s store in town.
“If our plan continues, we hope to be able to expand into some models, more air-brushing supplies and in a couple of years we hope to be able to do yarn and fabric as well,” she said.
Anything customers don’t see in the store can usually be special-ordered, as Thomas said she carries out special orders regularly.
Pahrump Rentals Hobby and Paint Center, located at 101 S. Frontage Road, is open Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Sundays. For questions you can contact them at 775-727-7242.
Contact reporter Mick Akers at makers@pvtimes.com. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.