Wall Dogs and the Ronan Factory
Breaking news: we care a lot about paint. So much so that when we’re not putting it on our walls, we’re attending meetings about it, discussing it, and thinking of ways to make it better.
Ronan has been Colossal's go-to paint of choice for over 15 years. Last month, four of our walldogs took a break from their brushes and headed to Newburgh, New York, where Ronan makes all its paint. We schemed all sorts of plans, from altering chemical compositions to creating custom colors, ending with a full-on Willy Wonka style tour of the factory.
There are no robots in this factory — like us, Ronan does everything by hand. They fill their paint cans by hand, slap on labels by hand, and mix every color (you guessed it) by hand. It feels good knowing we’re not alone in that department; that there are other companies running on the belief that the best things are made with heart and hard work.
Hand paint isn’t going anywhere, and we’re making damn sure of that. Ronan may not have sent our wall dogs off with a lifetime supply of chocolate, but the taste of what’s in store for our medium is about as sweet as it gets.
“It was great to meet their paint chemist who works in a mad tiny laboratory and literally thinks about paint properties all day long.”
“I didn’t realize how relatively simple it is to make paint but how wildly complicated it is to know what ingredients to use.”
“It felt like walking into a time capsule. I stood there imagining thousands of gallons of paint that had been created in their warehouse and all the countless ways the paint must of been used.”
“It was exactly like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, but instead of eating candy we got high on paint fumes.”
