When For Your Home and Aaron’s closed at Main Avenue and 14th Street, Robyn Vagneur saw an opportunity.

Vagneur grew up in her family’s SuperNova Furniture stores in Texas and decided a location in the Crossroads Center would be perfect for the first Colorado location.

“If I had to start from scratch, I wouldn’t be able to do this,” she said.

She left her job at Clements Group, a Durango investment firm, to open the store in April.

Her father left the geology field to open the first SuperNova location 30 years ago, and she is building on the model that has been successful in Texas.

To see what the Durango market was eager for, she started selling furniture pieces before the store was fully stocked.

Affordable bedroom sets, shag rugs, modern chandeliers and full-body massage chairs were on display in recent weeks, and she has seen strong sales so far.

When the showroom is finished, Vagneur plans to have a section dedicated to kids furniture. She expects to be ready for a grand opening on June 1.

She also plans to be open in the evenings and on weekends because, as a new homeowner herself, Vagneur and her husband found the hours of other home stores limited.

“By the time we got out of work, we couldn’t go shopping,” she said.

Vagneur has experience in business running a Quiznos sub sandwich restaurant in Steamboat Springs and in banking as a former UMB Financial Corporation employee.

Vagneur’s husband, Joey Vagneur, is from Telluride, and the couple moved back to Southwest Colorado in 2013.

mshinn@durangoherald.com