Coastal appeal

“It’s definitely a creative outlet,” Roberts says. “We both paint morning, noon and night, but it never feels like work because it’s our passion. It’s the best of both worlds, because we’re not just closed off in a studio painting. We get to come into the store and chat with the customers who come through the door, so we get to see our friends and meet new people every day.”

After several years of doing business solo, the two friends joined forces. “That’s when we got together and decided that we could do this on our own without renting space from a vendor,” Roberts says.

They found the store’s new home about a quarter mile down the street in a spacious building that nearly doubled its square footage. The massive 5,000-plus square foot showroom features 20-foot-tall ceilings and spacious windows that let in lots of natural light.

“It’s a very different vibe from the quaint little cottage we came from,” Roberts says. “The new space is very open, airy and bright.”

The expansive showroom offers plenty of space to showcase various furniture vignettes with artwork hanging all the way up to the ceiling. Neutral palettes and natural materials are accented with calming hues of blues and greens in the form of charming decorations, lighting, pillows, vases, baskets, tableware, linens and more.

The timing of the move proved challenging. High Tide Home Provisions left the cottage in mid-February 2020 and reopened down the street in mid-March 2020 — just as COVID-19 cases began to spike. The new store was only open for two weeks before mandates shut it down again for about a month and a half.

All this steady growth has led to High Tide Home Provisions expanding yet again.

“From the beginning, Market Street has been our best advertising,” Fisher says. “Our location has been a large part of our success.”

The four-lane roadway runs from downtown Wilmington north along the Carolina coast. High Tide Home Provisions is situated along a stretch of the street primarily occupied by car dealerships and similar furniture/furnishing stores, just a few miles inland from the beach.

“It’s a very busy road,” Roberts explains. “We get people in every day who have driven past us for years and never had the chance to stop.”

The shop is easily identified by a big blue boat that sits out front. When they relocated, they hauled the boat down the street with them “so people who didn’t follow us on social media or receive our emails were still able to locate us,” Fisher says.

“If we hear it once, we hear it 10 times a day: ‘I just want to live here,’” Roberts says. “We’ve had a huge influx of people moving to the area, especially since COVID, and when they come to the store, they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to redecorate my whole house here.’”

High Tide Home Provisions also attracts tourists vacationing along North Carolina’s beaches. Many of these visitors have second homes along the coast, so they frequent the store several times a year to update their beach house with the latest decor.

When new employees join the retail team, they quickly start to learn the names of High Tide Home Provision’s regular shoppers. “We’ve hired a couple new employees recently and they’ve commented how we seem to know everybody that comes through the door,” Roberts jokes. “We have gotten to know our repeat customers by name.”

Fisher and Roberts estimate that approximately half of their business is comprised of returning customers, while the other half is made up of first-time visitors. This mix keeps the store consistently busy from spring through Christmas.

Most of the furniture inside the store — between 70% to 90% — has been personally rehabbed, repainted or “reloved” by Roberts or Fisher. They work with local furniture builders who make custom tables and other wooden pieces. Through the years, they’ve also developed relationships with furniture resellers who supply them with secondhand finds from auctions and estate sales.

The store also offers custom furniture painting so people can bring in their own pieces for a fresh color or updated fixtures without replacing what they already have.

In addition to painting their own furnishings, Fisher and Roberts curate other one-of-a-kind accessories by partnering with local artists and makers who consign their coastal crafts through High Tide Home Provisions. For example, a local painter named Coco has been selling beach-inspired canvas paintings in the store since it first opened.

“She does a lot of seascapes, oysters, coastal birds and modern abstracts,” Roberts says. “Last year, we made a calendar with her art that was really popular.”

Another artist out of South Carolina makes laser-etched wooden maps of the regional shoreline. “We collaborated with him and made a custom map that goes from Topsail Island down to Bald Head Island, along the entire southeastern coast of North Carolina,” Roberts says. “That’s definitely been a top seller in all different sizes. We can barely keep those in stock.”

They also partner with a metalworker who makes laser-cut aluminum pieces shaped like various sea life such as octopuses, starfish, seahorses and turtles. “They can be painted or unpainted, but they’re all cut from aluminum so they’re safe to hang outdoors,” Roberts says.

“People love those outside on a porch because they don’t rust,” Fisher adds. “Those have been really popular for our sea life-loving friends.”

A diverse selection appeals to locals and vacationers alike.

Sea life imagery like crabs and octopuses has also taken over Roberts’ hand-painted wooden signs that adorn the store’s walls. Additionally, personalized signs continue to be popular, especially as special gifts for weddings or baby showers.

By bringing serene beach vibes into products through calming colors and charming accents, the store’s diverse selection invites customers to take a piece of the coast home with them, whether they’re vacationing or living nearby.

“We’ve created a space at High Tide Home Provision where each customer can experience a sense of peace and tranquility while shopping at our store for home furnishings or gifts,” Fisher says. “Even if a customer comes in our showroom and doesn’t purchase anything, we also want to instill a feeling of happiness. Our biggest goal is that everyone walks out with a smile — and I think that’s part of our customer retention and success.”

While sales are certainly an important measure of the store’s growth, the owners realize that the relationships they’re building with customers and vendors are the ultimate end goal. With that priority in mind, they continue to expand their business by making friends with the shoppers.