BECOME A DO-IT-HERSELF BEJANE.COM NOT THE SAME OLD SAW FOR WOMEN WHO WANT TO TACKLE HOME IMPROVEMENT.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

When Brooke Coe bought her Redondo Beach home seven years ago, it was as the builder had left it -- a blank slate, devoid of personality.

Everything was white, from the walls and carpeting to the bathroom tile.

``It was just so boring,'' she says. ``I almost regretted buying it.''

But Coe could close her eyes and see the potential. And she took it upon herself to do what a growing number of women in the U.S. are now doing. She strapped on her tool belt and got to work customizing her new home one square foot at a time -- and with little or no help from her husband.

``He likes to cook in his spare time,'' she says. ``I like to do home improvement. It all works out.''

When Coe, 35, had a question or felt overwhelmed, she went online for help. One of her favorite Internet resources is Burbank-based BeJane.com, an online community for both novice and experienced do-it-herselfers.

``This is more common than we realize,'' BeJane.com co-founder Eden Jarrin, 30, says of the growing number of do-it-herselfers.

``Women want to be able to fix up their homes, whether they live in a dorm room, rent or own a magnificent palace,'' but until recently, she says, ``no one's told them it's OK to do it.''

Hammer time

She then delivers her ``home empowerment'' refrain: ``Don't think that you have to be a contractor. Call them if there's something bigger you want to do in your house. But know that you have the power to do it.''

According to the Home Improvement Research Institute, women like Jarrin and Coe are gaining on men when it comes to tooling around in the home.

HIRI says women buyers accounted for about 43 percent of the $215 billion home improvement market in 2003, and new data expected to show an increase are due in a couple of weeks.

Big-name retailers already have placed bets this share is on the rise, investing in products and programs targeted specifically to women.

Home Depot, for example, now offers free ``Do-It-Herself Workshops.'' Target and Ace Hardware sell Barbara K tools specially designed to fit women's smaller hands. And new books such as Joanne Liebeler's ``Do It Herself'' from Sunset Publishing are hammering away at the growing population of single female homeowners.

Founded in 2003, BeJane.com has expanded into product sales, a partnership with MSNBC.com and publishing. The hardcover ``Be Jane's Guide to Home Empowerment: Projects to Change the Way You Live'' hit bookstore shelves in December.

``We wanted to create a community to share with each other and inspire other women,'' says BeJane.com co-founder Heidi Baker.

Baker, 37, got her start in home improvement after buying a Hollywood fixer-upper five years ago. She tried consulting with professionals on the necessary work, but the conversations felt patronizing, filled with sarcastic chuckles and smirks, she says.

``When a petite woman walks into a home-

improvement center and says, `I'm thinking about redoing my kitchen,' they look at you like you're crazy,'' Baker recalls with exasperation.

Fearing that a contractor who didn't take her seriously would put the screws to her budget, she decided to tackle the jobs herself. Her first big project was refinishing the kitchen cabinets. She never looked back.

Jarrin, meanwhile, is a born DIY-er who wouldn't take no for an answer when her parents declined her grade-school request for a four-poster bed. At the tender age of 10, she marched off into the yard and returned with tree branches that she fastened at the corners of her mattress.

She'd moved on to more sophisticated projects as a grown-up living in Laguna Nigel when she met Baker at a party.

The two instantly clicked, and BeJane.com was born.

``For some reason, there's this theory out there that women don't know how to do this sort of thing. But as soon as our girlfriends saw what we had done in our homes, they would ask us to show them,'' Baker says. ``That's one of the bigger reasons why we decided to do this.''

BeJane.com has become an invaluable resource to Susan Lewis, a 41-year-old do-it-herselfer from Camarillo.

Lewis purchased a condo about a year ago and is getting ready to remodel the kitchen, where she plans to repaint the cabinets, install new tile on the counters and design a mosaic backsplash.

``It's still in the thinking stage,'' says Lewis. ``I'm doing all the research first. I go online to BeJane and get ideas because I want to do all the design and work myself. And if it doesn't come out perfect, so what. I tried -- and next time it will be better.''

Even an old pro can benefit from the site.

``Just getting the inspiration from everybody else is the thing I like most about it,'' says Coe, who was primed as a do-it-herselfer during weekend visits to her father's 19th- century farm in northern Michigan. Her dad always had a project lined up for her, she recalls, whether it was building a barn or stripping paint off a wall.

Now a mother of two boys, ages 5 and 7, Coe labors around her own home.

Where inspiration grows

A trip to Italy inspired a backyard piazza, complete with a slate deck, a vine-wrapped pergola and a built-in barbecue.

She retiled the downstairs floor, built her boys an art activity center and gave her brick fireplace a new glamorous look.

``I built a custom mantle out of exotic wood and then surrounded it with mosaic marble tile, interspersed with nickel-plated tile for a little sparkle,'' she says.

Redoing the master bathroom is her next big project. ``You start with a faucet, then all of a sudden you do it and it's like, `Oh, that wasn't so bad. Maybe I'll get a new sink to go with my faucet.'

``It happens like that -- with each little project, you keep on learning a little bit more,'' she says. ``Soon you'll be going, `Well, now I need a new countertop to go with my sink, and all of a sudden you have a new bathroom.''

Maybe even a new house.

Sandra Barrera, [phone]

[e-mail]

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) We can do it

Home repairs become women's work with a little help from BeJane.com

(2 -- 3 -- color) Brooke Coe's do-it-herself projects include the fireplace mantel, above, and the pergola over her patio, right.

Robert Casillas/Staff Photographer

(4 -- color) Heidi Baker, left, and Eden Jarrin's BeJane.com helps women gain the skills and confidence to tackle their own home-improvement projects.

(5 -- color) Coe created this linen storage cabinet for her Redondo Beach home.

KEYWORDS} home - interior design - women - bejane.com - website - internet - construction