Kelly-Moore Paints

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Founded in San Carlos, California, in 1946 by former Glidden employees William Kelly and William Moore, Kelly-Moore built paint for the people who actually had to roll it onto walls for a living. The company began with a manufacturing facility and store in San Carlos, then developed a contractor-first identity that became a familiar sight across the West.

Moore bought out Kelly in 1952 and guided decades of growth. Kelly-Moore expanded through company stores, manufacturing, and acquisitions, including Seattle’s Preservative Paint Co. in 1994 and K-M Universal in 1995. In 1998, the Moore family established an employee stock ownership plan, giving qualifying workers a stake in the color business.

The company shifted manufacturing from the Bay Area to Hurst, Texas, in 2017. Flacks Group acquired Kelly-Moore in September 2022, and the corporate headquarters moved from San Carlos to Irving, Texas, in 2023. It was a big change for a business whose name had long been painted across California job sites.

On January 12, 2024, Kelly-Moore announced an immediate cessation of operations and an orderly wind-down, closing its stores and manufacturing facility while seeking to fulfill certain existing orders from inventory. In May 2024, Latex Paint S.A. de C.V. acquired the company’s intellectual-property assets.

Our Kelly-Moore Paints collection celebrates the stubbornly practical paint-can energy of contractor counters, color chips, and a regional original that made “one more coat” feel like a civic duty.