House Blend

Behind every color is a story of chance, experimentation, and science. And when two color stories collide? Everything changes.

HEATHER ANNE LEE

It all started with an idea and a blender. For Tony Piloseno, aka Tonester, that blender contained a gallon of white paint, and the idea was to add color, texture, and whatnot, and blend it live for a million-strong army of TikTok followers.

For Jeff Grasty, Don Strube Jr., and Rick Strube (that’s strew-bee), it was blending one part family legacy with three parts proprietary ingredients to create the iconic business Florida Paints.

Blend them both together, and you get paint for an entirely new generation.

“Paint is one of the most inexpensive, yet substantial changes you can make in your home,” says Jeff. “Which is why this partnership works so well. Tony’s creativity is introducing an entire new generation to the beauty of a product we already know and love.”

Feeling the Blues

What started as a fun way to share his passion for paint quickly changed the course of Tony’s life. And blueberries are to blame.

“When I first started working at Sherwin Williams in 2018, I had no idea how color was created. I thought paint was something you bought off the shelf. I had no idea about tinting formulas or how colors work together, but I absolutely fell in love with it. How adding the right amount of pigment can create different colors, and how very small increments, even a fraction of an ounce, can change everything. It was fascinating, and I absolutely loved mixing colors. It’s all I talked about,” he jokes. “So I started creating videos of my color experiments, just for fun. Everything was an experiment, which is where the blueberries came in. I had tried coffee and sauces and other things, but I like the color blue, and I thought blueberries would be fun.”

Seemed innocent enough. Until someone filed a complaint to corporate, and in July 2020, Piloseno was fired from his job of four years. For blending paints. That he paid for.

Although he was banished by the world’s largest paint producer, Tony’s passion for pigment was undeterred. He bootstrapped a studio in a friend’s basement, bought a cheap Lightbox and blend tool, and started collecting off-the-shelf paint products for his videos.

The videos kept getting noticed, and his follower account grew, but Tony still didn’t have a job. Pandemic and all. So he took to the camera and simply shared the story with his community.

Instant virality. To date, it’s one of his most widely-viewed videos with more than 8 million likes. Job offers flooded his inbox.

“It was cool to feel validated,” he says. “But I had a bad taste in my mouth working in a big corporate environment, so I wasn’t excited about joining another high-profile corporation.” He filtered offers and took a few interviews, but his interest wasn’t truly piqued until he received a LinkedIn message from Don Strube Jr. “I liked him from the start,” says Tony. “Florida Paints was a smallto-midsize, family-based company in Winter Garden, which I wanted. And Don was really passionate about paint and color. When I got off the plane, the first thing we did was tour the area, looking at all the colorful murals and buildings. He wasn’t just talking the talk. Don was truly passionate about color, and I loved that. Plus, one thing he told me straight from the beginning was that he was willing to help turn Tonester, my brand, into its own line of paint and color. What 23-year-old doesn’t want that? A dream come true.”

SIDEBAR: Face Your Fears

Tired of neutrals but scared that a splash of color will be “too much”? Here’s Tony and Jeff’s advice on how you can welcome color back into your interior with confidence:

Don’t fear the flashy. If you love a bold color but worry it will be overkill, paint just one wall. Strong color instantly changes a room.

Don’t fear the dark. If you have a dark room, don’t paint it a light color and pretend it’s a bright room. Painting a dark room a dark color can give it real presence.

Don’t fear the ceiling. Too many people ignore it. Paint your ceiling in any hue, light or dark, or add texture with architectural detail. When you address the ceiling, it lifts the eye.

When in doubt, think 60/30/10. If you are nervous or unsure about adding color into your home, consider using the 60-30- 10 color rule: 60% of the room should be a dominant color, 30% should be the secondary color or texture, and 10% should be an accent.

Blended Reality

Florida Paints, which is now housed in the former Winter Garden Citrus Growers Association packing plant, is a legacy experiment. Don and Charlie Strube were the first to blend the idea into reality back in 1960, with Color Wheel Paint & Coatings. Sixty years and 70 million gallons of paint later, Color

Wheel has been reborn as Florida Paints, but its proprietary formula — made to fight harsh elements like wind, salt, and sun — lives on. As does the Strube legacy, with sons Rick and Don Strube Jr. co-founding Florida Paints in 2012 alongside now President Jeff Grasty.

“At some point in life, every person will buy a gallon of paint. They may do it at 18 or 25 or 52, but it will happen. And once they roll that color onto a wall or a building, it will change the way they think and feel about paint,” says Tony. “Color is everywhere,” he continues. “It touches near- ly everything, and nowhere else is that more important than in our homes.”

“At some point in life, every person will buy a gallon of paint. They may do it at 18 or 25 or 52, but it will happen. And once they roll that color onto a wall or a building, it will change the way they think and feel about paint,” says Tony. “Color is everywhere,” he continues. “It touches near- ly everything, and nowhere else is that more important than in our homes.”

“We’re wired to look for color,” Jeff explains. “But for many years, color has been excluded from our homes. The whole notion of white walls and neutral spaces being more soothing. But we’re seeing a real love for color and people wanting it in their home.”

“The power of color can completely alter your experience,” says Tony. “So many people come into the store worried about making the ‘wrong choice.’ There is no wrong choice. It’s all about finding the colors you respond to and that make you feel good. And the beauty is, if it doesn’t work out, it’s just paint. $30, $40, $50 later, and you can try again.”

SIDEBAR: A Fresh Coat of Paint

The Winter Garden Citrus Growers Association packing plant was left unoccupied and dilapidated for more than a decade until Florida Paints renovated it in 2018.

“When Rick and Don purchased this building, it didn’t look anything like this,” says Jeff. “They were filming horror movies in here. It was pretty bad. But it’s a rich part of this community’s history— Florida’s history—and that’s important to all of us. We feel honored to carry on this plant’s legacy, from packing Florida oranges to making Florida paint.”