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F. Schumacher & Co. started selling wallpaper in 1889. Backdrop launched its edited, consumer-first approach to shaking up the paint marketplace in 2018. Now, these two industry brands with a 119-year age difference are teaming up to determine the future of how paint is purchased and sold.
Today, F. Schumacher & Co. (FSCO) announced its acquisition of Backdrop, the digital-first paint company cofounded by husband-and-wife team Caleb and Natalie Ebel. Despite F. Schumacher & Co.’s long history in wallpapers and textiles, the acquisition of Backdrop marks the company’s first foray into the world of paint, slotting the upstart alongside luxury rug and carpet brand Patterson Flynn Martin and lifestyle magazine Frederic in the FSCO brand portfolio. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Caleb and Natalie Ebel, cofounders of Backdrop.
Backdrop quickly carved out a sliver of the paint-sector pie by helping digitally native millennials visualize color in the home (through a wealth of user-generated gallery photos and restickable adhesive swatches), while offering a quality product that is as “impactful as a $3,000 sofa, but as accessible as a $65 throw pillow,” as Natalie describes it to AD PRO. That foundation allowed Backdrop to capitalize on 2020’s explosive demand for DIY to the tune of a sevenfold sales increase, according to a press release announcing the acquisition.
“We’ve rethought the whole customer experience around simplicity and ease of use,” Caleb tells AD PRO of Backdrop’s process, which presents an edited palette of around 50 paints that, once purchased online, can be delivered to the customer’s door the next day. “We’re empowering customers to treat paint as easy design and not something that requires four trips to the hardware store and months of deliberation on color selection.”
The antidote to the seemingly endless paint aisle, Backdrop’s selection is specially curated to around 50 paint colors.
