Retail Revival: A coat of paint

Sometimes, we get so used to how things look that we don’t even notice them anymore.

Those benches, the front of the store, the storage sheds or the structures that shade groups of annuals or perennials often get ignored during the growing season.

But now is a good time to consider those areas and the possibilities for improvement. As you plan for the period between now and the spring rush, it just might be time to look at these places with fresh eyes, imagining what magic could happen with just a simple coat of paint.

In garden centers, color can be used in several ways. It can be part of your branding, a tool for calling attention to particular products or a way to orient customers. Background colors can put the total focus on the plants, other merchandise or reinforce regional identity.

But before you’re tempted to go all out and spill the entire box of crayons onto your IGC, make a plan for what you want to accomplish.

Color can be a way to make your business more visible from the road. The next time you drive past your garden center, ask yourself if your signs or building fade into the background or call your attention. Don Shor, owner of Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis, California, used red paint to make his building stand out.

“A new coat of paint can definitely improve your visibility,” he affirms.

© Photos courtesy of Don Shor, Redwood Barn Nursery

At Great Gardens in Torrington, Wyoming, colors help direct customers to specific hoop houses. Owner Jeff Jones says staff can tell a customer, "Go out the orange door to the orange greenhouse."

After rebuilding the ends of the greenhouses, Jones told his employees, "Don't be afraid to make it look like Dr. Seuss was here!"

Paint is especially useful for sprucing up older walls, buildings and display materials. At Frankenstein’s Nursery at Adopt a Plant Greenhouse in Harrison, Ohio, paint is routinely used to make creative displays.

“We love to reuse and repurpose old things,” says owner Stefanie Frankenstein. “These are often free and leads to less in the landfill. Painting helps us to achieve a low-cost and whimsical yet professional environment that is unique to our business.”

Frankenstein’s team uses white, cream and black for backdrops, since that helps flower colors pop, but on other items, they lean toward vibrant jewel tones.

“Purples, deep pinks, turquoise, emeralds and deep oranges are my personal favorites,” she says.

They make sure to use a mix of colors that work well together, however, so that any painted item can be moved around and still work in other areas. In addition to using recycled display pieces, Frankenstein’s also recycles paint.

“We usually use leftover paint from our houses and projects, from friends and sometimes from the 'oops' bins at paint stores,” Frankenstein says. “We usually go through retail pieces in the off season to decide what needs a freshening, but sometimes we get random inspiration on a creative display or design idea and go with it.”

Painted backdrops and walls can be important for products and pottery as well as plants, and they can be used to enhance the merchandise on display. Before deciding which paint to use, it’s helpful to think about what will be displayed in front of it.

"We painted the wall behind our fish tanks blue to make the water look blue and make the fish stand out,” says Jeff Lau, owner of Pheasant Run Greenhouse & Garden Center in Glen Rock, Pennsylvania.

And just as color can be used to make something pop, it can also be employed to making something less noticeable. Sid Raisch, a retail consultant and owner of Advantage Development System, says that painting a chain link fence black will make it virtually disappear.

Paint can also be used to keep some of your customers entertained. Consider painting floors and walkways with a Twister board, hopscotch grid or circles marked for right and left feet to land on. Art Smith, co-owner of East Pierre Landscape and Garden Center in Pierre, South Dakota, said staff painted flowers on the store's floor.

“We hear plenty of positives from customers about them, and kids love jumping from one to the next," Smith says.

The process of painting can also be fun, not just work.

“Have a pizza painting party,” Raisch suggests. “If you don’t get the color right, have another one! Painting is inexpensive, but it is also a very high ROI investment.”