Painter 1: from home to brick-mortar office
“I appreciate everyone coming out, seeing everybody here and the impact we’re making,” said Keith Lane, who co-owns the business with his wife, Keli Lane, who also is vice president of customer support. “We want to touch a lot of people, give people a quality service and do things a little different, even with our painters and with our staff.”
Commuting from Alcoa, “Pellissippi makes life a lot easier,” Keith said during a subsequent interview.
Painter 1 provides interior and exterior, residential and commercial painting services.
“Pretty much any building,” Keith said. “We also do wood repair, drywall, carpentry services and things like that. It kind of complements our painting business.”
The carpentry and other services “are part of the inclusive services of painting,” he added. “If we don’t do a service, we try to be a one-stop shop, where we send people to referrals and have good contacts. That’s why we’re so active in networking groups and Chambers.”
The business serves Knox County and “any county that touches Knox County for residential,” Keith said. “For commercial, we’ll pretty much go anywhere throughout the country if the price is right.”
The Lanes started the business in their home.
“We were in there up until March, and we started in February 2021,” he said.
The big thing about moving to a brick-and-mortar was “as we grew, we obviously had more people, and that was more people in and out of the house,” Keith said. “We needed that separation.”
He added they also wanted that separation in their mindset of work and home.
“We have been working for a while, and our commercial sales manager, Keri (Lesperance) — she’s a former property manager — I’ve had her looking for about six months,” Keith said. “We knew the location we wanted, which would have been right near Pellissipppi.
“An opportunity came along and she assured me it was a great deal,” he added. “The location was perfect, so we went for it.”
Wednesday, March 1, was their official “first day moving in,” Keith said.
He has been in the remodeling business for 25 years.
“I’ve always known — and Keli has always had the dream of — owning a business,” he said. “It’s just a matter of timing. “
Keith went through a number of careers — then in 2015 he “happened” into a franchise painting company.
“I just kind of fell in love with the business,” he said. “I thought it was something I was really good at. That’s when we decided we were going to wait for the right timing and we’re going to open our own business.
“Oddly, it came about during the COVID pandemic,” Keith added.
They went with the Painter 1 franchise, and “it’s been great,” he said.
Painter 1’s business hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, but will work with customers on schedules.
For more information and a free estimate, call 865-345-5800, e-mail to Keith@Painter1.com or visit online at www.Painter1.com
