Alyssa Powell/Business Insider
Clare vs. Backdrop
- Backdrop and Clare are two new direct-to-consumer paint startups that want to make shopping for paint less painful, more convenient, and even fun.
- Both sell durable, low-VOC paint, available in a small selection of colors, for $49/gallon. They also sell $2 adhesive paint samples.
- Backdrop offers a larger selection of supplies and tools, while Clare offers more color and paint types.
If you take a look around your home, most of your things are probably from the same few retailers that you've been shopping at for years. To placate your boredom, quite a few alternative, online-first brands have swooped in to offer creative and interesting solutions. Up until recently, direct-to-consumer startups in the home and kitchen industry have mostly focused on these few areas:
- Furniture (Burrow, Campaign, Floyd)
- Mattresses (too many to count, but you know Casper and Leesa, of course)
- Bedding and bath (Brooklinen, Parachute, Boll & Branch)
- Cookware and dinnerware (Made In, Year & Day)
Other categories such as home paint and window treatments remained virtually untouched as the ones above grew and grew.
But as Millennials starting buying their first homes, it didn't take long to discover that every part of shopping for them, even when in came to choosing and buying paint, was stressful. As a result, they became attracted to startups that focused on curation, quality, and simplicity rather than excess choice and distractions.
In 2018, two startups, Backdrop and Clare, launched to relieve the stress of poring over 10 similar shades of blue once and for all.
Clare
These startups are hoping to change the way you shop for paint and infuse some enjoyment into the whole process, from picking out colors to getting up on that ladder and painting the walls.
They're not promising that watching the paint dry will be the most exhilarating experience of your life - that part's still pretty boring - but they are betting that you'll ultimately step back, admire your work, and think, "That was 100 times easier than the last time I tried to paint this room."
Since they both launched around the same time and have similar value propositions, we've broken them down on all the factors you care about, including price, color options, and additional tools and resources.
Overall, they challenge the idea that paint belongs in a boring hardware store. You won't need to sift through books of paint chips at Backdrop and Clare.
Read more about Backdrop, then shop home paint at Backdrop here.
Read more about Clare, then shop home paint at Clare here.
Learn whether you should shop at Backdrop or Clare, below.
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