Former owners return to run The Paint Bucket

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” 

— Michael Corleone, played by Al Pacino, in The Godfather: Part III

Harold and Liz Stephenson first opened the doors to The Paint Bucket in Sandpoint on Jan. 27, 1987. After 33 years, they decided to sell the business, which happened on Jan. 27, 2019. On Jan. 27, 2023, the newly retired former owners are back running The Paint Bucket.

“That’s when everything came together,” Harold told the Reader. “Everything good or bad happens on Jan. 27, I guess. This year, we’ll either buy a lottery ticket or hide [on that date].”

Liz and Harold Stephenson came out of retirement to run The Paint Bucket, which they started on Jan. 27, 1987. They sold the business Jan. 27, 2019 and took it back over Jan. 27, 2023. Someone buy these guys a lottery ticket next Jan. 27. Photo by Ben Olson.

When the new owners from Coeur d’Alene took over The Paint Bucket in 2019, the Stephensons threw themselves into restoring the adjacent property — former home of the Pine Street Bakery — where they planned to eventually retire. But the cosmos had more colorful plans for them.

“We carried the contract on the business and also rented the business to the [new owners], but they missed their payments, so we were forced to evict them,” Harold said. “Now we’re back.”

Regular customers have been coming into the familiar paint store for a few weeks, startled to see Harold and Liz back behind the counter, their familiar smiling faces greeting them.

“I had forgotten how much I missed people and color,” Liz said.

On a recent Monday morning, one customer came into the store and stopped suddenly with a smile on his face when he saw Harold.

“You again? What the hell are you doing back here?” the customer said, shaking hands happily with an old friend.

“Oh you know, we just can’t stay away,” Harold shook his head with a grin.

It’s the regular customers who have made their return to working life that much more enjoyable.

“It’s been so fun coming back and seeing our regular customers again, who we’ve interfaced and interacted with for 30 years,” he said. “We’re involved with their projects again, whether commercial projects downtown or working on their houses, it’s always made this job worthwhile. … 

“That was the most difficult part of retiring, actually, because our customers became our family,” Harold added. “It was our family life and social life, and we became so ingrained with their projects. It made work so much more enjoyable for us. Now, every time someone comes through the door with their jaw dropping, telling us they’re glad to see us back, it makes us feel really good.”

Liz said returning to the paint store was, “kind of like when you find out you’re going to have your grandkids come over for the weekend and you’re surprised and it’s just a blast.”

Meanwhile, the home restoration project next door has been put on the back burner while teh Stephensons get everything back up to speed at The Paint Bucket.

“Right now we’re working seven days a week, putting the paint store back together and putting everything back in place,” Harold said. “We want to do it right and have everything nice and operational.”

As part of the updating of the store, Harold said they are offering cans of paint on sale to help reduce the inventory they don’t want to keep carrying in the store.

“We’re running paint out of here as fast as we can, at ridiculously low prices to clear out stuff we don’t want to carry forward with,” Harold said. “Liz is the ultimate at cleaning out stuff she doesn’t want. She does it at home, too, but it’s usually my stuff.”

Liz also wanted to mention how grateful she and Harold are to her sister Bev Kee and her husband Andy Kee for restructuring the business and helping them forge ahead.

The Paint Bucket will be open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m.-noon on Saturdays. They will be closed Sundays.

Looking forward, Harold and Liz are setting their sights on retiring for good to live in the home next door, which has quite a history in Sandpoint. While pulling up boards on the front porch, Harold found the date “April 27, 1908” carved into one. It was also the childhood home of former-District 1 Sen. Jim Woodward. 

“While we were here making paint, it was three Mexican restaurants, the Red Martin Cafe and three bakeries,” Harold said. “It’s a beautiful house with good bones.”

As far as The Paint Bucket goes, the Stephensons haven’t decided on their next steps.

“We’re still trying to figure it out,” Harold said. “We’re looking into staying as a paint store, or leasing it as another business, or possibly selling the building. We’ve had interests in all of those. We haven’t started advertising yet, but we’ve had people come in and say they’d like the building as a restaurant or this or that. It’s a good piece of commercial real estate, and there’s more interest than we expected.”

For now, Harold and Liz are happy to continue doing what they love, serving the customers they care about.

“It keeps a smile on our faces,” Harold said.

The Paint Bucket is located at 714 Pine St., in Sandpoint. For more information, call 208-263-5032.