Cabinet painting may seem like an obscure, niche hobby compared to a world-renowned pop star like Beyoncé. However, there are several reasons why decorating and repurposing old cabinets and furniture has become a widespread crafting phenomenon that arguably rivals Beyoncé’s fame and popularity.
[Read more…]How Much Does it Cost to Have Cabinets Painted?
If you are looking to paint kitchen cabinets, 2 Cabinet Girls has been specializing in painting kitchen cabinets since we started and this is the question we hear the most, “How much will it cost to paint my cabinets?” We have always been as honest and transparent as possible about our pricing and process, even though our competitors try to use it against us 🙂
Although no two painting projects are the same, and your needs may differ from our average, we can tell you what we’ve been seeing over the past year.
[Read more…]Cost-Benefit Analysis of Painting Kitchen Cabinets Yourself
“I could do that myself.” you may be thinking. Honestly, you’re correct. Painting isn’t brain surgery and nobody is going to die if you mess it up.
Let’s look behind the curtain and see if it makes sense for you to tackle the job yourself.
If you have a 40 hour a week job (with the commute added in) then you’re probably away from your kitchen most days. That leaves you the weekend to DIY your kitchen cabinets. We’ve written a long blog post on exactly how to paint your cabinets just like we do, but I’ll summarize it here. For this exercise, I’ll assume that your free time is worth $30 per hour (feel free to adjust it as you see fit). What follows is a realistic, best-case-scenario for a DIY cabinet painter.
[Read more…]Why Every Company is a Customer Service Company
As 2 Cabinet Girls continues to grow, lots of things seem to get more complicated. One thing that I refuse to allow to get left behind is an unbending commitment to clear, concise communication with our customers. Our goal is to have every customer say, “That was the best experience I’ve ever had!”
We’ve all probably had a less than amazing experience with a contractor. Usually, contractor problems stem from bad communication. In fact, most problems in life are communication problems. When the plumber tells you, “I’ll be by next week”, but won’t get more specific. The electrician who says, “I’ll swing by tomorrow morning.” and then shows up at noon.
[Read more…]The Hidden Cost of Discount Cabinet Painters
All we do is cabinet painting. Every hour of every day we sweat the small stuff about how we can get better at cabinet painting and customer service.
Occasionally we’ll hear back from someone that we previously quoted and they talked to a regular house painter who gave them a price they couldn’t refuse.
Painting Your Old Kitchen Cabinets
You don’t need to have a kitchen as outdated as the Brady Bunch to want to update the cabinets to something more stylish. Painting your old kitchen cabinets might be the perfect solution.
[Read more…]How to convince your husband to paint the kitchen cabinets
Even though it’s obvious that painting your kitchen cabinets would be a huge win, usually you have one more person to convince.
We hear from a lot of customers who tell us that their husbands were very reluctant because “the cabinets are fine.”
[Read more…]Price Matching
We know that sometimes people make a decision based on a small amount of money. We once heard that we lost a job because another painter quoted the homeowner $20 less! We heard that story when they later called us in to fix that job a few months later.
We hate the idea of you choosing a cut-rate painter for the most important and visible room in your home. In an effort to help even more homeowners in the Triangle see their dream come true, we’re going to try something crazy – Price Matching.
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Does a Bigger Company Mean Better Results?
Andre the Giant meets young boy
There are some serious advantages to becoming the well-known leader when it comes to painting cabinets. Most of those advantages were completely hidden from us until we got here.
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Cabinet Painting Master Class
2 Cabinet Girls in-house cabinet painting training for our own new hires.
If you’re considering painting your kitchen cabinets yourself, you should consider taking this master class for advanced DIYers conducted by two of our master cabinet painters for advanced DIYers.
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Will the Paint Wear Off or Yellow My Painted Cabinets?
We got these questions on our Facebook Page when we asked people what their lingering concern about painting their cabinets was.
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Cabinet Refacing vs Cabinet Painting
Time to make your kitchen look brand new? Thinking about some renowation, adding appliances mentioned by productspy reviewing the best oil filled radiator – to maybe feel warmer while cooking? If you’ve been researching cabinet refacing in the Raleigh area there’s a good chance you’ve seen a company called Cabinet Cures. Cabinet refacing is a completely different project then painting your cabinets is.
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Cost of Painting Kitchen Cabinets Professionally
How much will it cost to have my kitchen cabinets professionally painted? That’s what almost every discussion starts with. Although not a complicated question, the answer is generally, “it depends.” It’s like asking, “how much does a car cost?” or “how much does it cost to build a house?” Moreover, proper interior painting can increase your home value. You can read more on how simple touch ups can sell your home.
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Sharing Our Cabinet Painting Secret Sauce
Special Sauce
I have learned that the real secret of a company’s secret sauce is that there really isn’t any secret sauce. With remarkable regularity, the best stores attract the most customers and the best-selling products are a combination of value and quality.
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How Will My Painted Cabinets Look and Feel?
“Will it look like a factory finish?”, everyone asks.
If you don’t want to read on, the short answer is yes.
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Setting Expectations When Painting Oak Doors
Who doesn’t love the beauty of oak?
The truth is, a lot of people don’t. As a professional cabinet painter, I’ve started to worry about oak cabinet jobs because some customers aren’t ready for the end result. They like the color, they like the quality of the work, but they almost always say, “I can still see the grain.”
Yes, oak has a very strong grain that requires extra attention to fully cover with paint, but the actual topography of the wood will not be changed by adding paint. Think about the last time you painted a wall and missed one of the old nail holes – the paint doesn’t fill in holes or repair things.
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How To Choose a Cabinet Painter for Your Home
Over the past five years, I’ve learned so much from my customers. The most important thing I’ve learned is what’s important to them better be important to me too. Here’s a short list of the questions anyone hiring someone to paint their cabinets should ask.
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Why I’m Rarely The Cheapest Quote
I am so happy that almost everyday I get at least 1 or 2 people contacting me for a quote. About 10% of the time, I hear back from the person telling me that they received a quote from someone else for “a lot less.”
When I was first starting out, those calls concerned me. Was I over pricing my services? Were my costs too high? Was I paying my people too much? Should I be doing less prep work?
The flip side is that my customers are really happy with the results. Most tell us that it turned out better than they ever imagined.
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The Best Paint for Cabinets
If you’re a normal DIY homeowner painting kitchen cabinets in a house you’re already living in, we recommend using a waterborne alkyd paint. These paints create a glass-like finish that barely shows brush or roller marks and will hold up to your day-to-day wear and look like new cabinets.
Like any good painting projects, this one will require proper prep work, including cleaning, degreasing, filling in big dents or gouges with wood filler and finally sanding. When you decide to paint kitchen cabinets it’s even more important because of the abuse they will need to put up with.
[Read more…]How a Negative Yelp Review Made Me Better
I’m lucky, my husband has been working on the web since 1995 and has been helping big brands with their digital marketing for the past 10 years. So when my little business received a 1-star review from Yelp, he reminded me that it’s not the end of the world.
When we started this venture, it was my friend and I painting my neighbor’s cabinets in my driveway. I never thought it would grow over the next few years to include 15 people and 2 crews booked three months out. With that success, I’ve learned some important lessons.
Mostly what I’ve learned is to make sure I keep the homeowners in the loop at every step and set expectations as clearly as possible. I believe that not over-communicating is where my negative Yelp review came from.
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