It is primarily engaged in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of paints, coatings, floorcoverings, and related products with operations in over 120 countries.

[4] Sherwin-Williams was incorporated in Ohio on July 16, 1884, two years after Osborn sold his interest in the company while retaining the retail operations.

[4] In the early 1920s, the company became the largest coatings manufacturer in the U.S.[4] Sherwin-Williams experienced a downturn in the 1970s, and Gulf and Western Industries unsuccessfully attempted to take over.

[4] In September 2019, the company announced that it would move its headquarters to a larger site,[9] and in February 2020, confirmed it would remain in the Cleveland area.

[21] On July 6, 2011, Sherwin-Williams acquired Leighs Paints, based in Bolton UK, manufacturers of intumescent and high performance industrial coatings.

[26] Sherwin-Williams has created more than 35,000 color names for paint over its history, and as of 2023, it has nearly 200 distinct shades of white classified as either warm or cool.

These stores market and sell Sherwin-Williams branded architectural paints and coatings, industrial and marine products, floorcovering, and related equipment and supplies.

[29][30] The Consumer Brands Group develops, manufactures, and distributes various paints, coatings, and related products, under the brand names of Anthony Angelillo, Bestt Liebco, Cabot, Dupli-Color, Duron, Dutch Boy, Frazee, Geocel, Guangdong Huarun Paints, H&C, HGTV Home, Kool Seal, Krylon, MAB, Martin-Senour, Mautz, Minwax, Pratt & Lambert, Purdy, Ronseal, Thompson's WaterSeal, Uniflex, Valspar, and White Lightning to third party customers in addition to overseeing the operations maintained by the Paint Stores Group.

[37] On July 6, 2011, Sherwin-Williams acquired Leighs Paints, based in Bolton UK, manufacturers of intumescent and high performance industrial coatings.

[39] After Mexican antitrust regulators voted against the deal twice, Sherwin-Williams bought Comex's US and Canadian divisions for $165 million on September 16, 2013.

Some commentators were upset that a donation wasn't made "due to a lame technicality", causing a public relations embarrassment.

[45][46] In November 2020, the company fired employee Tony Piloseno, who'd amassed over 1.4 million viewers on his TikTok paint mixing channel, Tonesterpaints, for alleged misconduct.

[61] On April 9, 2018, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and representing attorneys uncovered that Sherwin-Williams tried to "shift the blame to contaminated water in an effort" to avoid having to pay tens of millions of dollars in settlements.

[64] In May 2020, Sherwin-Williams agreed to pay $3.6M to settle a lawsuit brought by workers in California alleging underpayment of wages and failure to provide obligatory meal or rest breaks.

When the products failed to live up to these assurances, causing ongoing problems for his business, Tyczki sued Sherwin-Williams and was awarded $2.88M.