EP #12: We Paint, You Relax with Starfish Painting

Abby & her father, came together to start a company to help homeowner's make their home feel like...well home.

 Today we talk to Abby from Starfish Painting in Naples about the services they offer and what they can do to benefit a home home.

 Listen in for insight on where to start with painting your house, the difference in paint quality, and some tips for best paint colors in Florida to make your home light and bright.   
 
To connect with Abby you can reach her via email at;
abby@starfishpainting.com
https://starfishpainting.com/
To learn more:
https://barefootbungalowrealty.com/

Barefoot Bungalow Realty & Property Management
9200 Bonita Beach Rd SE, Suite 100
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
(239) 350-5535

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Live Your Best Life Barefoot podcast with your host Mary Mouritsen and the team Barefoot Bungalow.

Speaker 2: 0:08

Hello everyone. Welcome to live your best life barefoot our next episode. It's great to be back. We're here with Ruth today. Hi Ruth. Hi Mary. How are you? I'm doing great. And we have an amazing guest here with us, A bby, from Starfish Painting. We're so excited to have you on the program. You do s ome great work and I'd love to hear a little bit more about it. I'm sure our listeners would appreciate all of your great tips and everything you do welcome. So tell us about your journey to where you're at right now.

Speaker 3: 0:44

Well, I've definitely done a lot of different things and painting kind of came right out of left field, but I think that, you know, I did an undergrad in psychology, didn't want to do that. I taught English didn't want to do that. I got an MBA, which I absolutely loved, but I found out after that And when I went to my first corporate job, that that really wasn't for me too many rules, didn't want to sit in the office all day. And my family has been involved in construction on all different levels. My dad was a general contractor for awhile, so he proposed this idea and I knew not too much about it, but kind of jumped right in and here we are. It's honestly just it's all come together like it was kind of supposed to be

Speaker 2: 1:38

That's amazing and painting is totally different than all of those other things, but I'm sure you use a lot of psychology comes into painting and

Speaker 3: 1:47

We're using psychology and sales and the MBA and the whole business side. So it's all kind of come together in a way that I never would have pictured when I did all these separate things, but it is all it did all come together with the painting industry.

Speaker 2: 2:01

Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And that's a great thought about like, thinking about the way paint makes you feel in your home.

Speaker 3: 2:11

It makes a big difference if people feel like their home is dark or, you know, even just brightening it up, getting brighter colors on the wall can really change how you feel at home.

Speaker 2: 2:20

Absolutely. Yeah. That's huge. You never w ould h ave thought of all those things coming together, but it does. It works. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about what you do.

Speaker 3: 2:33

So we do interior and exterior residential painting. We work all the way from Marco to north Fort Myers, pretty much all of Collier and Lee county be focused on repaints rather than new construction. And we also add in different services. We offer, have somebody that we work with 40 type of stucco repair. A lot of times in Florida you go and do a painting estimate, y ou k now, around somebody's pool cage, there are stucco issues just from the way that the ground has settled around, like staircases that go up into a pool cage, a lot of stucco issues, something that homeowners usually don't know that is an issue. So we offer that service for people to arrange that for them at cost. We also do a few other things like cabinet repainting. We have another contractor that we work with. So we focus really on just painting the walls, trim doors, but we do also coordinate other, tr ades for our clients.

Speaker 2: 3:38

Oh, that's such a great asset to be able to have, because those are the things that hang up a project.

Speaker 3: 3:45

A lot of people don't know where to go to get stucco repair. They wouldn't know what to look for. They wouldn't know a reasonable price for that. Do they just come with the right questions to ask to get something like that fixed?

Speaker 2: 3:58

Absolutely. So what is it that you feel like sets you apart in the painting world?

Speaker 3: 4:06

I think that we spend more time with our clients. We do in depth color consultations. A lot of companies just expect you to go pick the color by yourself, but we're willing to come in paint samples on the walls, go through that whole process with you. Coordinating the trades, I think sets us apart. A lot of people would add that cost in, but we're actually doing it at cost. So we're having you pay them directly. So you know that we're not marking up, any services. And yeah, other than that, we're giving very detailed estimates to people. So they know exactly what they're getting. We can hold each other accountable on what our expectations are. And other than that, we're using very high quality paint, which a lot of people are using more of a contractor level paint. And we're using about one to two steps higher than that, depending on the project. That

Speaker 2: 4:56

Makes a huge difference, especially in our weather.

Speaker 3: 4:59

It does on the exterior, definitely on the exterior, more than the interior, you can talk about getting five years of life versus 10 years of life on your outdoor painting job, which you know, can make a huge difference. Even at whole exterior's know quite a bit of money. So if you can get twice the amount of time for just a little bit upgraded paint, that makes a big difference.

Speaker 2: 5:19

That's great. That's really good. So tell us about things that you would give our listeners as tips.

Speaker 3: 5:29

Okay. The first tip I would give you would be to paint your ceilings more of a flat color, more of a not bright white color. A lot of people, especially people from the north, which is where I grew up, like to paint their ceilings a bright white, but in Florida, it just, it doesn't give you the same effect because we have a lot of settling in the ground. So you'll see big lines on your ceilings. After a while that you're just, it's just going to draw your eyes to it. You're not going to be happy with it. So we would definitely suggest more of like a muted. White can still be white, but just not that bright ceiling white. Another thing is to paint all of your closets, a bright white, a lot of people don't realize that, but when you're in your closet, you want as much light as possible. Other than pulling that wall color into the closets, you should just do a bright white in the closets. Even if your wall colors and natural neutral color, it's still, it makes a big difference, especially in like a walk-in closet, any type of bedroom closet, bright, white, really, really pops in the closet.

Speaker 2: 6:36

That is a great, it's a really good idea you to think about that. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 6:41

And then also the paint quality, I would definitely have people ask whoever they get a quote from what type of paint they're using

Speaker 2: 6:51

Area in the closets. I feel like our closets kind of get beat up. So that would make a big difference.

Speaker 4: 6:57

Well, and what kind of paint would you use like in a bathroom if people are going to redo their bathroom because the ceiling needs to be a different paint than the wall paint right. In the bathrooms,

Speaker 3: 7:05

It doesn't have to be, it depends what kind of colors you're doing but they can be the same exact type of paint. Okay. So

Speaker 4: 7:12

For instance, because of the humidity, it won't peel

Speaker 3: 7:16

It's on most paints nowadays. It's not really an issue just because they all have like a standard that they can withstand the heat in the bathroom. But you know, most paints are going to have a little bit of an issue if you don't want a fan or something like that, just because of the humidity down here. But for the most part, every paint will be okay in a bathroom.

Speaker 2: 7:34

Okay. And then, do you do all of the ceiling work? Like that always seems like the nightmare one popcorn off.

Speaker 4: 7:48

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:49

Thanks for reading my mind.

Speaker 3: 7:52

We do take the popcorn off ceiling. It's actually a very big process. There's a lot of people that try to scrape it off and then just immediately paint over it. That's definitely a very shortcut DIY way of doing it. It's a lot more involved than that. So I would recommend if anyone's thinking about doing that to definitely ask what process they're going to use because just scraping and painting is not is not the full process. There's about six steps missing in that. But yeah, I mean, we can do it. There's a lot of contractors that do it does make a massive mess, but it looks really good when it's done.

Speaker 2: 8:32

Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing how you walk in some of the homes we walk into. That's what you're immediately looking at, If they have popcorn ceilings,

Speaker 3: 8:39

A lot of them are lower. I mean, they were built a long time ago, so they're lower saying, so it's closer to you. So I think you're really drawn to it. So it's not, yeah. I would definitely recommend people do that when they have no furniture in their place living yeah. Done with furniture, but I'm just, it's a big, it's a big ordeal.

Speaker 2: 9:00

Sure. Absolutely. So is there anything else you think that our listeners should know about a painting or your company or anything that you have to add to what we've talked about today?

: 9:19

I would say just make sure you know who you're going with, make sure you know, that you can trust these people that you're signing a contract. I work with my dad. We're local people. We're never going to, you know, run away with your money, but that can't be said about everybody. So I would just urge people to consider that maybe the lowest price, isn't always the best price.

Speaker 2: 9:42

Yeah. Right, right. Do your research,

Speaker 3: 9:45

Do your research for sure. Look, the people up online licenses are available online. Make sure people are licensed insured.

Speaker 2: 9:53

Where do they find the license? If you're looking to see if somebody licensed, where do you find that

Speaker 3: 9:57

You can go on the Collier county contractor licensing, it's a website online. And then another thing is you can check Sunbiz.com just to make sure that people actually have a company registered.

Speaker 2: 10:09

Okay. That's a great idea. That's a really good, I

Speaker 3: 10:11

Will say that in Collier county, a painting license is required and that is reciprocal in Lee county. You have reciprocal. So if you look somebody up, they could have a license in Lee or Collier county, but they do require licenses. So just keep that in mind. A lot of places do not require painting license, but we do here.

Speaker 2: 10:31

Okay. That's good to know. Yeah. Great tips. And it's really been fun visiting with you. Thank you again for coming on. And paint makes such a big difference in the home. Uh, yes. Tell us about how we get ahold of you.

Speaker 3: 10:47

We have a Facebook page and Instagram page and we have a website. if you just search on any of those Starfish Painting in Naples. Also have our phone number is 239-488-9000. Y ou can contact us there at any time. O kay.

Speaker 2: 11:07

Wonderful. Well thank you for being here. We appreciate it. And um, we look forward to seeing you guys on the next episode and always remember to Live Your Best Life Barefoot.

Speaker 1: 11:20

Thank you for listening to the Live Your Best Life Barefoot podcast, sponsored by Barefoot Bungalow Realty to learn more about Barefoot bungalow, really go to www.barefootbungalowrealty.com or call 2 3 9 3 5 0 5 5 3 5.