Anderson’s Paint--Ann Arbor Paint & Wallpaper

I should take away a star from Anderson Paint, just for closing the store on William Street.
Anderson’s is the only place I buy paint and supplies if I can help it. They carry the best brands: Benjamin Moore, Graham and California Frescoat. If you follow the coverage of paint in Consumer Reports, California was the highest rated brand last year, and Bennie Moore is always close to the top. They can make your paint job last 10 years, rather than the standard five to seven years.
The staff knows a lot about paint. They can tell you what kind to use and how to put it on. They’ll warn you about problems you might encounter with the preparation and painting, if you can manage to get to the store when they are not too busy and talk to them about your project.
They have a great selection of tools and supplies, and everything is well organized. I never end up wandering around wishing I could find the right thing, which does happen at Lowe’s.
Yes, the paint sells for $ 30 to $ 65 and per gallon, but that’s what real paint costs. You can get paint for as little as $ 16 per gallon at Lowe’s, but I wouldn’t use their paint outdoors; indoors it can probably hold because it doesn’t have to stand up to the weather.
Anderson’s also has a store on Stadium Boulevard, north of Stadium and Liberty, and that’s the store I’ve been using since they closed the downtown store. But I have been into the Washtenaw store a couple of times and the staff is every bit as good as the other store. They did a good job putting together orders for different kinds of paint, including a couple of tough custom matches.