TAMPA, Fla. — A small family-owned paint store is celebrating 85 years in business, making it one of the oldest family run businesses in Florida. 

Owning a small business can be risky, and putting your name on the product puts your whole family's reputation on the line.  The Tanners have been building on their reputation for decades, one coat of paint at a time. 

Tanner Paint started in 1933 when H.D. Tanner started selling old paint stock as a temporary job to get his family through the great depression. He and his family have built Tanner Paint into the oldest family-owned, independently operated paint store in the state.  H.D. was Steven Tanner's grandfather and he says he can't help but feel blessed to shepherd the family business. 

"When you see the Sears and Roebucks and the Montgomery Wards and all the changing of the world and you're still here, you feel more blessed and lucky than anything you did personally," Steven said. 

What the Tanners have done these last 85 years is develop a paint and a personal touch that big businesses can't seem to shake. 

"Tanner Paint is 100% acrylic, made for Florida with high mildecides and all the things that our heavy climate does to paint," Walter Tanner said. 

"I think it's more than that. I think that people come here for the service. They come here because we'll help them. We'll help them pick out colors. We'll help them make sure they don't buy something they shouldn't. Buy what they're supposed to. We're like Cheers for paint," Jett Tanner said laughing. 

Whatever their reason for success, customers seem to keep coming back in loyal droves.  Juan and Vanessa Parra said they paint murals and attribute their strokes of success to the paint they purchase at Tanner Paint. 

"The durability of it and the opacity of it, I mean we can't find that anywhere else. And believe me, we've looked!" Parra said. "We've had other artist friends start coming here too because they know they can get what they need."

As they continue to take care of customers like family, the little paint store will see its next 85 years. 

The Tanners have been holding 85th anniversary events all year long, capping it off with a party and a pig roast this holiday season.