About Us

Richard and his wife of 18 years Jill.

Richard Nelson President & Owner

One Man and A Brush LLC
Serving North Metro Atlanta since 2004

In the late 70’s and early 80’s my cousin, who had a paint contracting company in Augusta, GA, taught me the house painting trade. We restored and painted the interior and exterior of many 3-story; 100-year-old homes in downtown Augusta, that were to be used for pubs, restaurants and offices. It was extremely hard work but very rewarding to see empty, abandoned homes brought back to life to maintain their historical importance.

The work involved everything from stripping layers of old paint from handrails and staining them to reveal the wonderful hand carved craftsmanship and style of the era that you just don’t see anymore, to tying multiple ladders together to reach and paint the old tin roofs. Being young, the danger did not concern me, I can still recall stepping off a ladder over 30’ high in mid July onto a tin roof and it being so hot the paint melted under my shoe.

 
I moved to Atlanta in the early 90’s, (married my beautiful wife of 18 years now and have 2 wonderful children, Aaron 16 and Rachel 14). I have worked in the music business, pawn industry, a buyer of pro photographic equipment, and the Internet hosting business (I was the sales manager and help build the company to 8-million a year) before the company was sold for 29 million after 4 years. This was just before the Internet bubble popped and the new company, from Europe, came in and laid-off all the management to bring in their own people. After being hired again in the same industry, I was laid off a year later due to downsizing.

 
Having a family to support, I felt I needed to get into a more stable, non-tech industry that would allow me to highlight my management skills and commitment to providing superior customer service. The light bulb went off as I fell back on my old skillset of house painting. I started working for several larger painting contractors as an estimator and realized they were not calling customers back when they had small painting projects. I asked if they would give me the leads and allow me to do the jobs on the side to supplement my estimating income. After several months I realized I had tapped an under served market.

 
The reality was the larger companies were not setup to handle small painting projects with 5 guys in a van. So, after brainstorming and being inspired by the company “Two Men and A Truck” I started “One Man and A Brush”, knowing I personally could bring a high level of customer service to the painting industry. I started advertising to paint interior small projects and the rest is history. After just 6-months I had to start hiring painters and never looked back. With the diversification into offering handyman services, home repairs and home improvements we continue to grow on average of 25% a year and I now have 12 painters, and 3 handyman/carpenters that understand and are dedicated to my high standards and superior customer service.

 
We now do more larger house painting projects than we do smaller projects, but I have maintained the structure of hiring individual painting craftsmen that allows me to send just one painter to paint just one room or put two or more painters on larger painting projects, keeping us flexible to meet any size painting need. My goal is to keep our growth at a level that allows me to continue personally supervising all of my painting projects and maintaining the highest level of craftsmanship and customer service in the Atlanta metro area. 

 
I understand that choosing someone to work on your home is one of the most important decisions you can make. I can promise that if you trust One Man and A Brush to paint your home, we will treat you and your home with the utmost respect with the dedication of doing it right the first time as if we were working on my own home.