Before Alan Robinson painted his first house, he painted canvases. And when he traded his easel for a ladder, he brought all of his artistic insight along with him. For some 20 years now, he’s been brushing his talent on the walls of Bellevue and beyond. The difference is in the details, and that’s why he’s come to be known as “Nashville’s Most Trusted Brush.”
"He takes everything through a painter's lens — not a house painter, an actual artist," says his wife, Beth Robinson, who helps run the family business. "He sees all the details, all the things that need to be fixed, all the things that could go wrong."
This shows up with color first, which anyone who has stood in front of the paint section at Home Depot staring at 40 different whites can understand.
"He can see, in his mind's eye, with the shade of the room, how the sun comes in — all the things that are going to affect the color," says Beth.
This is a lesson I know all too well, having just color-drenched my new bedroom in a Pinterest-inspired shade that looked fabulous in the photo, but now looks like what can only be described as the inside of a colon. My griping during this interview led to an honest conversation with Alan about what went wrong, and what needs to change. Don’t worry, I’ll share his tips.
"He's meticulous, and he's a perfectionist," says Beth. "He sees the things where somebody else is just going to say, 'Yeah, that's the color,' and put it on the wall — and then you're standing there thinking, that doesn't look the way I thought."
Robinson's work runs the full range: interiors, exteriors, decks, fences, cabinets, and more. His trained eye can help achieve goals for clients that seem impossible. For a home in Kingston Springs, he turned a plain surface into a distressed fireplace and reworked a set of white kitchen cabinets into a soft, distressed green, cutting texture into the finish with a five-in-one tool.
"I remember watching him and thinking, 'How are these browns and greens going to work together?'" says Beth. "By the end, it was a piece of art."
Not every job calls for that. Some clients just want clean walls in a hurry, trusting a dependable neutral like Agreeable Gray or Greek Villa. Others want to get it exactly right with a specific vision in mind. Robinson's service flexes between the two, with as much or as little guidance as a client wants.
“Alan has become a concierge painter," says Beth, "He can customize the project for each client's needs. Some people want that, and some people don't, and that's okay."
The Robinsons are a Bellevue family through and through — a blended family with six kids ages six to 22. They attend St. Matthew Catholic Church, and have seen the community show up for each other significantly over the years. “There’s a strong sense of community, of family, and of people wanting to support each other.”
AlanRobinsonPainting.com
A Confession From the Writer's Own Bedroom
When I sent the Robinsons photos of my colon bedroom, he offered a handful of things to think about when repainting or redecorating.
- Layered lighting. Natural light and lamplight are two different animals. Make sure you’re accounting for all hours of the day and all of the lighting layers you intend to have before you commit.
- Accents. Your walls don't live alone. They come alive with picture frames, a comforter, curtains, and even the floor. Alan noted my gold-framed art was getting lost against the brown, and that a darker brown or black would help create contrast between the paint and the accents.
- Style. Paint color does fall into a design category: modern, antique, farmhouse, etc. Pick a lane for the whole room so the color, the finishes, and the furnishings all work together to help you achieve your goal.