The Purple Painted Lady store is open in Palmyra

What is The Purple Painted Lady?

“Our home, which is where my business originated, is a purple and white Victorian country farm house,” said Tricia Kuntz, proprietor of The Purple Painted Lady store. “Victorians are known as ‘painted ladies.’

“It fit perfectly because I paint and I live in a Victorian, but the ‘painted lady’ website name was taken by some men in Texas. We ended up taking ‘The Purple Painted Lady’ because I live in a purple painted lady.”

The Purple Painted Lady store opened its doors on Dec. 3, 2011, at 208 East Main St. in Palmyra.

However, Kuntz had been operating the business from her home in Macedon the past seven years.

The business consists of: paint commissioned pieces; retail - including jewelry, purses, some home accessories; selling painted furniture; and selling the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint products.

In addition, Kuntz provides various workshops, called ‘ReFunk Your Junk,’ for four to six patrons at a time.

“People bring in a piece of furniture that they can carry, and spend a day in the shop and leave with a totally transformed piece of furniture,” Kuntz said.

Kuntz holds sessions specifically for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, basic and advanced classes. She holds painting parties for kids, and is believed to be the only person to have an inspirational workshop for girl scouts.

“I just met with someone from the New York-Penn Region Council,” said Kuntz. “The girl scout council is going to be booking workshops through me, and they will have the girl scouts register through them. That’s a huge thing that is going to be happening.

“I also still paint murals in people’s homes, on my off days,” she added with a smile.

Kuntz has painted all her life. However, she started to paint murals for family and friends about eight years ago.

“People started to ask about them, and it really grew from there,” she said.

Kuntz also participated in Homearama, sponsored by the Rochester Home Builders Association, as a muralist/designer.

“That helped springboard a lot of what I do,” she said. “I do a lot of painted furniture.”

About a year ago Kuntz came across Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.

“The way they promoted the paint, there was no sanding, no priming, the paint sticks to anything, waxed wood, lacquered wood, metal, glass, clay,” she said. “I was quite cynical when I bought the paint, and it did everything it was supposed to do, and more.

“In the last year I signed on as the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Company. I am a New York stockiest for most of Western New York. I ship it all over the United States and Canada from my online store.”

Being the distributor for the paint, Kuntz desired a more visible location, than the workshop from her finished barn at home, which is why she selected the store at 208 East Main St.

Kuntz, who resides with her husband, Steve, and 7-year-old daughter, Danni, in Macedon, also wanted to be near her family with her business location.

Prior to becoming a mother, Kuntz was involved in the corporate world.

“In one of my jobs, I traveled over 300,000 air miles in ONE year,” she said. “I didn’t want to do that anymore.

“I’ve always been creative artistic, and this is the perfect outlet. I think if you find something that you like to do, you’re going to be successful in it, no matter what, and to be truly happy. It’s the best of both worlds.”

Kuntz’s background is quite diverse.

“Mechanical engineering, then operations management, and software consultant,” she said. “I have quite a bit of project management and experience. That always helps from a business side, but I think by default I have more of a creative marketing perspective.

“I think the two marry really well, and that has helped me quite a bit.”

The Purple Painted Lady will be having an open house on Feb. 11, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Valentine’s Day.

“A portion of proceeds from that day will be donated for breast cancer research,” said Kuntz.

“We also do a lot of volunteer work to the humane society.”

Kuntz is very active in the community as well.

“I am the president of the Palmyra King’s Daughters, which is a philanthropic organization that has been around for over 100 years,” she said. “We manage $1 million and all the interest from that benefits the communities of Macedon and Palmyra.”

Kuntz also is on the Village of Palmyra Celebration Committee, and she is trying to help with a merchants association in the Village of Palmyra.

“I’m fairly busy,” Kuntz added with a smile.

Additional information can be found on Kuntz’s website: www.thepurplepaintedlady.com