Adler’s Design Center & Hardware: Better paint, truer colors

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Most people know that you can’t count on the color you see on paint chips to exactly match how the paint will look on a wall. Harry Adler does not dispute this – instead, he has fixed the problem.

Adler, who is a former member of Providence’s Temple Beth-El and who co-owns, with his cousin Marc Adler, Adler’s Design Center & Hardware in Providence’s Fox Point neighborhood, has found a niche in the paint business: he has dedicated himself to developing products that help customers pick the right color the first time. This niche, he says, is what has helped Adler’s stay in business so long (since 1919, to be exact).

“The companies that specialized in manufacturing paint to small independent retailers like us were being bought by larger companies,” Adler said in explaining his business’s need to develop unique and superior products in order to compete with bigger businesses.

The first solution centered on paint chips. Paint chips, Adler says, are usually printed using either lacquer or printer’s ink. The former is more desirable as it more accurately resembles how the paint will look on a wall. But 20 years ago, that wasn’t enough for Adler.

In 1998, he teamed up with five other independent retailers and a paint chemist to develop solutions to the paint chip problem.

They came across a business based in Winnipeg, Canada, that had developed a paint chip that used the actual paint. When this business was unable to continue production, Adler and the other independent retailers bought it. They also developed a new line of paint, called C2 Paint.

In addition, Adler has developed two inexpensive paint services. One is called Rent A Color. In the back room of the store are shelves upon shelves of paint cans that customers can “rent” so they can try them out on the walls of their homes. This is not only economical, but also resource-friendly; if customers aren’t happy with their selection, they’re not stuck with a full gallon of paint that will go to waste.

The second service is customizable paint. For example, Adler says, take the color Spanish Moss. If the color is a shade off for your tastes, Adler’s will custom mix it to your liking – perhaps, say, one part Spanish Moss to three parts white.

“Part of what we were looking for was a better quality paint, and part of what we were looking for was interesting and better color – whatever that meant,” says Adler.

As he was speaking, Adler was ringing out a customer who had both rented a color and bought customizable paint. Looks like it worked!

ARIEL BROTHMAN is a freelance writer who lives in Wrentham, Massachusetts.