Commitment has been the backbone of Johnston Paint & Decorating for more than 80 years. Considering it’s a company that has changed hands only once since 1925, that’s not surprising. Commitment to community, to superior service, and to quality products are the ideals with which L.D. Johnston and his sons founded Johnston Paint & Decorating so many years ago, and those ideals are as alive and apparent today as ever before.

In 1925, L.D. Johnston and his sons, Paul and Lennie, opened the L.D. Johnston Company (which would later become Johnston Paint & Decorating) at 14 N. Ninth Street. At the time, the family only sold paint, wallpaper, and glass. By 1939, the business had grown enough to require larger retail space. Johnston Paint & Decorating moved to 702 E. Broadway, where it remained for roughly the next 40 years.

After L.D.’s death, Paul and Lennie continued to run the business. The brothers took on Gary Turner and Ron Elder as store employees in the 1970s, and in 1984 Turner and Elder purchased the store from the Johnston family. Soon, Turner and Elder relocated Johnston Paint & Decorating to 613 E. Ash to better accommodate customer parking and store larger volumes of inventory. Once they settled into the new Ash street location, Turner and Elder also expanded their product line to include tile, carpet, window treatments, and custom draperies. As Columbia continued to grow, so did the customer base at Johnston’s.  In 2007, the current location on Buttonwood Drive opened with almost 4 times the square footage and a impressive showroom built with the customer in mind.

Today, Johnston Paint & Decorating boasts a staff with more than 175 years of combined experience. The company’s numerous designers and paint consultants impart their insiders’ knowledge of the industry and its innovative new products every day to customers in order to provide the best service possible. They also remain dedicated to providing only superior products. That’s why they still proudly sell Benjamin Moore Paints today, a brand Johnston Paint & Decorating has carried since 1925.