Indy Painting was founded in the fall of 1997 by Kory Lidstrom.  It began as a franchise for the largest residential painting company in North America.  Having painted with his father for years, he had a knack for the business, and quickly led Indy Painting to the top of the franchise rankings.  In its inaugural year, Indy Painting became the #1 first-year franchise (#8 overall!) in the U.S. and Canada – beating out over 500 others!  Indy shattered the Minnesota production record – a record that had stood for over 20 years.  That success was repeated the next couple of years – with Indy Painting being ranked in the top ten nationwide in overall sales and volume each year.  Indy Painting was even featured on the front cover of the Twin Cities Employment Weekly.

After 3 record-breaking years at the top, it became obvious that Indy Painting had outgrown the franchise system, and could do even better on its own.  Thus, in the fall of 2000, Indy Painting broke away from the franchise and began increasing the quality and scope of projects.  By this point, referrals and word-of-mouth business had become a mainstay for Indy Painting as happy customers spread the word.

Then in early 2001, Indy Painting hit on its first big success.  The president of Twin City Roofing and Construction, one of Minnesota’s largest home-improvement companies, hired Indy Painting to stain his own private residence.  He was so impressed with the quality of the work, that he asked if Indy Painting could like become TCRC’s go-to painters.  An agreement was made and Indy Painting is now the official painting company used by TCRC.

Another big success came in early 2002, when the president of the Golden Oaks Townhome Association hired Indy Painting to work on a couple of the association’s buildings.  Just as had happened the year before with TCRC, the GOTA’s president was so impressed with the quality of the work that he hired us to paint all of the association’s 35 buildings through the year 2011 (!).

In the fall of 2006, Jon Trenda became aware of Indy Painting and looked at it as a good addition to his contracting business.  It was obvious Indy Painting had a high standard for quality and professionalism and could deliver service that few other painters could.  So Jon made an offer to Kory, he accepted, and together Jon and Kory guided Indy Painting through a successful 2007.  Things went so well, Kory has stayed on with Indy because all the elements that have made Indy Painting successful have been maintained.  Now, our capacity to serve our clients has increased and our customers have been very pleased.

Presently, we are still going strong, serving the entire Twin Cities-metro area and western Wisconsin.