You’re fixing a leak under the sink. Or you ran out of spackle halfway through a drywall repair in your house. No worries, you can pop over to the corner hardware store and quickly grab what you need, like your parents and grandparents likely did.
Nowadays, though, with the popularity of websites such as Pinterest, crafty customers are visiting the hardware store for inspiration as well as a gallon of paint. And Corinne Courtney, owner of Nailed It! Hardware in Washingtonville, is — um — nailing it.
“This is hardware meets Pinterest,” says Courtney, as she walks around her expansive store. “We can help you replace your toilet, or help you make something to hang on your walls.”
Indeed, Nailed It! is the source for pipe wrenches, nuts and bolts, and anything else a handyman (or woman) would need. But there’s also a “dalek” from Dr. Who sitting in a corner, made of items purchased from the store, and large papier-mâché letters spelling out the store’s name with decoupaged vintage photo prints of the store when it was Saturnos’ Hardware. And Courtney holds workshops in a back room where guests can create artwork for their walls from items as unique as old trash-can lids.
A former project manager for an interior design firm, Courtney brainstormed the idea for her hybrid store back in 2001; it came to fruition in late 2015, when she bought Saturnos’ Hardware from Anthony, Carl, and Bill Saturno, whose father Tony Saturno opened the original hardware store in 1947 with his brother, Pete. She’s kept a lot of the store intact — longtime customers will recognize the paint wall, and the key-making corner — and she has the Saturnos’ blessings (Bill still works there, part-time). But Courtney expanded the retail area from its original 2,400 sq ft to 7,000, to encourage customers to browse. There’s a lot to see, including the framed 1947 blueprints of the building itself, and a corner of the store where local business owners and contractors can leave business cards.
Customers get a warm welcome, decades of home-improvement knowledge, and a brand-new dash of crafty inspiration.
Nailed It! Hardware
4 South St, Washingtonville
845.496.3755
