REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM ON THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Shareholders and Board of Directors The Sherwin-Williams Company Cleveland, Ohio We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of The Sherwin-Williams Company as of December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, and the related statements of consolidated income, cash flows and shareholders’ equity and comprehensive income for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2004. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits. We conducted our audits in accordance with standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion. In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the consolidated financial position of The Sherwin-Williams Company at December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, and the consolidated results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2004, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. As disclosed in Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements, in 2002 the Company changed its method of accounting for goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets. We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the effectiveness of The Sherwin-Williams Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2004, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated February 10, 2005, expressed an unqualified opinion thereon. Cleveland, Ohio February 10, 2005 41