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BUSINESS
Creative Kitchens has been serving Tri-State since 1959
From left Nancy Rigney, vice president, Mike Rigney, salaes manager, Rob Stepp, president, and Jeanne Stepp, director of client services, pose for a photo at Creative Kitchens located at 1242 5th Ave., in Huntington.
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HUNTINGTON — It’s where kids do their homework, where grandchildren bake cookies with their grandmothers, and where everyone gathers around the cook during the holidays and sneaks a nibble.
The kitchen is the center of activity in many homes, a gathering place. And as years have passed, more households are making their kitchens even more of a living space, rather than just a place to prepare food.
It’s on that foundation that Creative Kitchens has built a reputation, not only at its original location in downtown Huntington, but also at its store in Charleston and its recently established store in Lewisburg, W.Va.
And this year, the family-owned business marks 50 years.
“We just take it day by day, but when I talk to other people, I realize what an accomplishment (50 years) is,” said Vice President Nancy Rigney. “It’s really a testament to my dad.”
Creative Kitchens was founded in 1959 by Bob Stepp. He started it with $1,500 loaned to him by his father, who was in the furniture business.
Bob Stepp had been an accountant for Ashland Oil, and for a year or so, went to that job during the day and ran his kitchen store at 1242 5th Ave. at night.
Today, the business is run by both his son Rob Stepp, who is president, and daughter Rigney.
It’s a great team they have, the siblings said. Rob Stepp focuses more on design and creative aspects of the business, while Rigney focuses on accounting and logistical matters.
Rob’s wife, Jeanne Stepp, is the director of client services for Creative Kitchens, and Nancy’s husband, Mike Rigney, is the sales manager for the company.
The company does kitchens and baths, as well as entertainment centers and other home features. It sells cabinetry, including Wellborn, as well as fabricating some custom items and doing full installations.
While selling stock cabinetry is the majority of what Creative Kitchens does, the biggest growth for the company has been in its full-service installation department. Of the 64 employees in the business, 31 are in the installation department, Rob Stepp said.
And what started in a shop the size of a house — which in 1959 had a white, brick storefront — has grown to cover maybe a third of a block between its showrooms, offices, warehouse and fabrication shop.
“Fifty years was really great reflection time,” Rob Stepp said. “Tears have welled up because we thought about Dad. He made it 40 years, and second generation businesses usually have a (high) mortality rate. But in the past 10 years, we’ve added 20 employees, another store and a new showroom.
“Every time one of those achievements comes around, we think of Dad.”
Its store in Charleston celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and its Lewisburg store was established in 2007, after the Charleston store started to build up a big client base in a subdivision at the Greenbrier, called Greenbrier Sport Club.
Creative Kitchens has worked on about 50 properties in that Greenbrier area, Rob Stepp said, including one that was featured in Woman’s Day.
Women’s Day Kitchens & Baths Magazine, a special publication by the nationally distributed Women’s Day Magazine, featured a six-page spread on a kitchen designed by Rob Stepp in its spring 2008 edition. The articled was titled “Old World, New Look — A designer draws from European Sources to create this comfy kitchen.”
Working at the Greenbrier homes was a great opportunity, Rob Stepp said.
“We’ve gotten to work with some of the world’s finest interior designers and the world’s finest architects,” he said.
Rob Stepp said he was born to go into the family business.
He started at age 13, making 75 cents an hour — $28 a week. “At the time, believe me, I wasn’t worth more than $28 a week,” he said.
Working in the family business as a child was an interesting experience, he and his sister said. Nancy Rigney worked there as a child and then worked in retail and a physicians office before answering her dad’s call to Creative Kitchens.
As a child working at the store, she called her dad “Mr. Stepp” at work, and “Dad” at home.
“That was my way of separating the two,” she said.
It was extremely difficult losing their father to lymphoma in 2001, she said.
“I didn’t just lose my father. I lost my mentor, my boss, someone I had lunch with,” she said. “That’s another side of having a family business.”
But she and Rob think their father would be proud of what they’ve done since he passed away.
“It’s been 10 years with Nancy and I at the helm, and I can’t remember one stalemate between us, and we have strong opinions,” Rob Stepp said.
They’ve always stayed focused on the clients’ needs, he said, which keeps them moving in the right direction.
Among their happy customers are Michelle and Todd Townsend and their daughter, Meg, who just got a new kitchen for their home in Hurricane.
It feels like being in a different house, Michelle Townsend said.
“We had this vision, and they were able to fulfill it and we’ve been very happy with what they’ve done,” Michelle Townsend said. “They take photos, go back to the shop, create a design and let you take a look at it and let you go from there.
“...The level of service and professionalism was top notch. The gentlemen there to do the installation — to make it what it is — did a great job.”
The job took six days, far less than Townsend was expecting, she said.
Creative Kitchens also has created custom bookshelves for the Townsend family, on both sides of their living room fireplace, and has built a custom entertainment center.
The next project the family has planned for Creative Kitchens is a master bath renovation. Based on what they’ve done so far, it will be great, Michelle Townsend said.
“It’s fabulous. We have no complaints,” she said. “They did exactly what we wanted and more.”
