The New York Times - Sunday, June 29, 2003

An Artisan in Every Can of Paint

The New York Times
Money & Business Section
Sunday, June 29, 2003

An Artisan In Every Can of Paint
By Suzanne Hamlin

Mastering the rarefied world of decorative arts can be as easy as shuffling cards, say Sunny Goode and Dede Davis, who have created a do-it-yourself line of wall glazes, color washes and finishing paints.

Now a year and a half old, Sunny’s Goodtime Paint Products, in Richmond, VA., competes with established lines like McClosky’s and Modern Masters. Like those rivals, Sunny’s Paints can transform walls, giving them the patina of old fresco plaster or a subtle, light-reflecting surface.

“But Sunny’s Paints are more consumer friendly,” said Richard Lepper, the manager of Strosniders Hardware Stores in Maryland. “It’s a very different look, not nearly as heavy or formal as the other decorative paints. The colors are much lighter and brighter, the texture is thinner and it goes on faster and easier.”

And the partners are excellent teachers, Mr. Lepper said. “At a demonstration at the Bethesda store here several months ago,” he said, “1,200 people showed up on a Sunday morning.”

Sunny’s Goodtime Paints are carried by 45 retailers, mostly in the East but also in California and Colorado. About half of the company’s sales come from its Web site, www.sunnysgoodtimepaint.com.

The company’s premixed, water based glazes and washes are applied to an already painted wall with a soft cloth or a roller. A 10-by-12-foot room requires about a quart – at $29.95, a small fraction of the $2,000 or more that a professional might charge.

There are 37 colors, including Pumpkin, Sunshine Daydream and Gator Green. The company’s Deck-o-rator set of 36 acrylic cards, which costs a customer $20 shows 23 transparent glazes and patinas and 13 opaque color washes. The cards, so popular that the women have applied for a patent, can be held up to a wall for a true reading of the final look.

The women have been friends since college and became professional partners almost a decade ago. Two years ago, inspired by the response to a magazine feature on their custom work, they got a $80,000 loan and plunged in, Ms. Goode said, “just on gut instinct” that an audience of do-it-yourselfers was waiting.

The designer, both in their 30’s and married, continue to work for private clients. Ms. Goode has three children under the age of 6; Ms. Davis is expecting a baby in November. “Maybe that’s part of our appeal,” Ms. Goode speculated. “Our lives are just as full, and our time as short, as our customers”. I guess you could say we’re our own ideal clients.