October 28, 2025

By Sarah Belzer

It was a warm New England summer in the 1970s when a 15-year-old girl, barely 4 feet 11 inches tall, found herself balanced on rough wooden planks 20 feet off the ground, brush in hand. The staging swayed as her brother Dan bounced beside her, making her laugh as she tried to paint a straight line. 

By the end of the day she was covered in paint and sun, exhilarated rather than exhausted. 

“It was fun, not work for me,” she recalls. That girl was Marge Parkhurst, and what began as an afternoon helping her father blossomed into a five-decade career that has transformed homes and landmark properties across Litchfield County. Today, her rebranded Cottage & Country Painting Company carries the same spirit of artisanship, community, and grit that first put “Painting by Marge” on local trucks so many years ago.

Marge’s training began at home. She grew up on a small farm in Woodbury, surrounded by horses, chickens, and the rhythms of country life. She remembers watching her father build houses, and her mother constantly reinvent their home. That summer when her father left Marge and her brother to paint one of his buildings defined the course of her life. By 17, she was running a small landscaping-and-painting venture with a neighbor, painting when the sun was out and gardening when it rained. At just 20, she bought her first house—an early milestone in a career built on tenacity and vision.

By the late 1970s, word had spread. Neighbors and friends called, and Marge soon had more work than one person could handle. She began hiring help. Many were mothers like herself, balancing family life and work. Her reputation grew almost entirely through word of mouth. Soon her clientele included celebrities of every stripe—from sports heroes to actors, musicians, and television personalities.

Marge will tell you trust is built by hard work. “There’s only one way to do a job, and that’s to do the job right.” That begins with sanding, priming, puttying, and caulking—what she calls “the work behind the work,” a discipline most people don’t see but one she says can nearly double the life of a finish. 

Whether restoring the peeling clapboards of an 1800s farmhouse or applying gold leaf behind the altar of a church, Marge brings what she describes as museum-level attention to detail to every project—and her clients have come to expect nothing less.

“Prep work is a lost art, because of the time, skill, and expense it demands. But for me, that’s what it’s all about—the smile on a client’s face when they see their house come back to life.”

After 50 years, Marge reimagined her business as Cottage & Country Painting Company. The new name, she says, “fits my clientele, and speaks to the rustic charm of cottages and the refinement of country estates.” Each summer, she mentors a new generation of painters, teaching them to take pride in their work. “They drive around just to look at the houses they’ve worked on. That’s real pride.”

Today, Marge lives on a country estate in Colebrook, where she still delights in rural life—and where she sees herself as a neighbor first, not just a business owner. “I’m really lucky to be able to drive through the country to go to work every day,” she says. “Sometimes I take the back roads just to enjoy the beauty.”

For Marge, every wall tells a story, every finish carries a piece of her history. With Cottage & Country Painting Company, she has given Litchfield County more than a coat of fresh paint—she has left a legacy of resilience, beauty, and trust. —cottageandcountrypaintingcompany.com