Painting services we do
- Interior wall painting — single colour or room by room
- Ceiling painting, including after popcorn removal
- Trim, baseboards, crown and casing
- Interior doors — both sides, prepped, primed, two coats
- Accent walls and feature panels
- Cabinet painting — kitchen, bathroom, built-ins
- Lanai and pool-cage framing
- Exterior stucco, block and trim
- Stain and varnish on interior and exterior wood
Prep is most of a paint job. If your last paint job peeled or went patchy within a year, it was almost never the paint — it was what happened before the paint. We wash, patch, sand and prime before a topcoat can is opened.
What painting a Florida house actually involves
Four things here are different enough to change the work, the price, or both.
Knockdown texture everywhere. Most walls and ceilings in Sarasota County are textured, not flat. Texture holds roughly a third more paint than a smooth wall, it needs to be rolled in a particular direction to avoid shadowing, and cutting a clean line against textured ceiling takes longer. Anyone quoting purely by square foot without looking at the texture is guessing.
Humidity decides the schedule. Latex is touch-dry in an hour or two, but recoat and cure times stretch on a humid week. We would rather take the extra half day than trap moisture under a second coat and have it burnish or peel later.
Sun and salt on the outside. West and south elevations fade years ahead of the shaded sides, and closer to the water the salt load is harder on everything. That is why exterior repaint intervals here are shorter than the paint can suggests, and why we will tell you if only two elevations actually need doing.
Mildew, especially on closed-up houses. A snowbird home sitting with the AC on minimum grows mildew on the cool north side and in corners. Painting over it buys a season. It has to be killed and cleaned first, which we do as part of prep rather than as a surprise line item.
Our painting process
- Prep. Cover and protect floors and furniture. Wash surfaces, patch, sand, treat mildew where it is present.
- Prime. Bare drywall, patches and stains get primer so nothing bleeds through the finish.
- Paint. Two coats standard. Clean cut lines, no drips, sanded between coats on trim and cabinets.
- Cleanup. Furniture back, drop cloths out, touch-ups, and a walk-through with you in daylight.
What we use
Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore professional lines — Emerald for interiors, ProClassic for cabinets and trim, Regal Select for ceilings. Not builder-grade. It covers better, holds colour longer and costs more per gallon, and on a textured Florida wall the coverage difference alone narrows the gap.
Pricing
Room (walls only), ~10×12: $450
Walls + ceiling: $650
Full room (walls + ceiling + trim + doors): $950
Additional colour per room: +$150
Interior door (both sides): $150
Cabinet painting (standard 10×10 kitchen): $2,800–3,500
Exterior: $2/sqft base
What moves these: ceiling height, how heavy the texture is, how many colours, the condition of what is already on the wall, and how much furniture has to be worked around. Repairs to the drywall underneath are quoted separately — see drywall repair.
How long it takes
- One room, walls only: a day
- Room with ceiling and trim: one to two days
- Whole interior, average three-bedroom: four to six days
- Kitchen cabinets: three to five days, most of it drying between coats
- Exterior: three to six days depending on size, prep and weather
These are estimates. A wet week adds time, and we will tell you when it does rather than rushing a coat.
FAQ
How long until I can move furniture back?
Latex is dry to touch in one to two hours, but we wait 24 to 48 hours before anything goes back against a wall so nothing leaves a mark.
Do you paint over wallpaper?
Removing it first is better. If it is too far gone or stuck hard, we can prime with an oil-based primer and paint over it, but the wallpaper texture will still show through.
What about lead paint in older homes?
Paint in homes built before 1978 can contain lead, and sanding or scraping it is what makes it a hazard. If your home is from that era and the job involves disturbing old paint, testing comes first — the same way we handle asbestos on ceilings. We do not sand or scrape unknown old paint, and we will tell you plainly if that is where a job stands. Most homes in this part of Florida are newer than that, so it rarely comes up here.
How long does cabinet painting last?
With proper prep, the right product and sanding between coats, a kitchen we have painted should hold up for years of normal use. Skipped prep is what produces chips and peeling within the first year — that is the real variable, not the paint.
How often should an exterior be repainted here?
Sooner than the paint can promises. Sun and salt are hard on the west and south sides, and those elevations often need doing before the rest of the house does. We will say if a partial repaint makes more sense than a full one.
Do you paint lanai and pool-cage framing?
Yes. It needs proper cleaning and the right product for aluminium, otherwise it comes off in sheets.
Can you paint right after popcorn ceiling removal?
That is how we do it — scrape, repair, skim, sand, prime and paint are one job, not two trades. See the popcorn ceiling guide, including the asbestos testing that comes first.
Do I need to be home?
No, as long as we can get in and you are reachable for colour questions. Plenty of our work is done for owners who are up north at the time.