History

Vic & James Paint Center is celebrating 40 years of service to the Wichita Falls area. It is Wichita Falls only locally owned and operated paint and accessories store and has been in the same location at 3903 Wayne since 1976.

Vic Kaufhold and James Sorenson became business partners and opened Vic & James on January 5, 1976. Vic left the business after one year, but James continued to operate the business until 2006, when he sold it to a lumber company. However, he continued in a support role, helping to continue the tradition of customer service until his death in 2014.

The business was purchased by Dwayne and Kathy Browning in 2015. Dwayne had previously worked at Vic & James and wished to restore and enhance the Vic & James mission. His wife, Kathy has been director of financial aid at Midwestern State University for a number of years and enjoys the opportunity to work in a retail business. She enjoys the business side of Vic & James and also really enjoys the opportunity to interact with the public.

Vic & James has always provided great service to contractors in the Wichita Falls area and beyond, but Dwayne and Kathy want to bring that same level of service to individuals as well.

"Let's face it, lots of places in the area sell paint," Dwayne said. "The difference with us is service and expertise. We won't sell you something you don't need or that won't work because paint is our speciality. We're locally owned and we want you to be happy with our service so you will come back and send your friends to us as well."

Dwayne and the other staff at Vic & James are paint experts. "Not all paints are alike and there is a big difference in what paint to use on different surfaces," he says. "We can help you choose the best paint for your application."

Another important aspect to painting is to choose exactly the right color. Paint pigments must be blended carefully to get the desired result and matching colors can be a challenging task--one that is easily accomplished by the paint professionals at Vic & James.

"We have had situations where customers have simply been unable to get an exact color match until they came to us," Kathy said. "What seemed impossible was accomplished in a matter of minutes by using our computer controlled paint tinting machine and years of expertise in operating it."

"Customer service is the key," added Dwayne. "We work with our customers and that includes going to their houses if necessary. We want to do the job right because we care about our customers."