Fresh Coat Paint & Stain
Remote Work
Staining a bridge in the middle of an off-the-grid farm field 

Sometimes it isn’t the size of the job that counts, but the ingenuity it takes to accomplish it.

The bridge sat on active farmland, so the work had to be coordinated around the farmer’s harvest schedule and weather windows. They needed to be sure the ground was hard enough to support a trailer staged as a makeshift field base.

Surface prep came first. The new wood had begun to weather, with grey fibers, debris, and signs of animal activity. With no water source available, the crew hauled in 350-gallon transfers just to run a pressure washer. Cleaning restored the cedar exterior and Douglas fir interior, bringing the surface back to a condition ready to accept stain without the need for sanding.

Fresh Coat followed a spray-to-saturation method, with thorough back brushing to drive the stain deep into the wood.  Over three weeks, a three-person crew transformed the structure into a sealed, uniform finish designed to stand up to the weather. 

Ai Painting Plus
Victorian Comeback
Bringing a faded Victorian back to life

By the time Ai Painting Plus arrived at this turn-of-the-century Victorian, decades of neglect had nearly erased the craftsmanship that once made the home stand out. Layers of failing lead paint covered nearly every surface. Decorative scallop siding was cracking and peeling. Even the home’s carved architectural features had lost their luster.

The crew pressure washed the structure before moving into weeks of scraping, sanding, caulking, and puttying. The scope stretched across nearly every visible surface of the property. Crews painted siding, soffits, porch ceilings, basement window sashes, columns, and doors. The Victorian’s scalloped peak rose roughly 40 feet above grade, requiring a 60-foot boom lift to safely access the upper portions of the structure.

Historic restoration projects often test a contractor’s patience more than speed. Success comes from process, preparation, and resisting the temptation to rush through difficult work. On this project, the company leaned heavily on all three.

Whitehouse Residential & Commercial Painting
Heaven Above
Meticulous work to restore a church ceiling

Church ceilings have a way of hiding how difficult they really are. Years of water intrusion and age had damaged sections, requiring targeted restoration work rather than a full repaint. The assignment called for plaster repairs, color matching, decorative painting, and gold leaf restoration, all while preserving the original appearance of the historic church.

Instead of relying on repeatable templates, the crew adapted to freehand restoration work using artist brushes and careful hand control. Decorative half-circle patterns were repainted individually across the ceiling, requiring patience to maintain the illusion of symmetry from the floor below.

Visitors looking upward see a unified ceiling rather than repaired sections. The decorative painting feels original to the building because the crew approached it the same way the original artisans did more than a century ago: slowly, patiently, and by hand.

H&H Painting Co.
Excellence on Display
This design demanded flawless finishes across every exposed surface 

The new KRESA Career Connect Campus leaves nowhere for mistakes to hide. Serving as the commercial painting contractor on the massive campus project entailed an unusually broad scope of work. Crews applied intumescent fire-resistive coatings to exposed structural members to meet fire-rating requirements while still maintaining a clean architectural appearance. 

One of the project’s biggest technical challenges involved protecting roughly 115,000 square feet of mass timber decking installed throughout the building. Maintaining the natural appearance of the wood while spraying and coating adjacent materials required extensive masking, careful staging, and strict attention to detail.

After nearly a year of work, the finished campus now stands as one of the most visually distinctive educational facilities in West Michigan.

Renew Painting
A Knotty Problem
What started as a repaint became a technical exercise in stain blocking

What looked like a straightforward exterior repaint quickly became a technical problem hiding inside the wood itself. Following hurricane repairs and structural additions, the homeowners had decided to completely redesign the exterior, including installing new knotty pine siding.

But upon inspection, Renew realized that heavy knots and sap pockets throughout the material created a high risk of tannin bleed-through. Rather than waiting for the problem to appear, they revised the coating formula and incorporated a pigmented shellac-based primer specifically designed for stain isolation.

The finished result validated the approach, and the fact that sometimes the best coating decisions are often the ones homeowners never realize had to be made.

Lamb Painting
Raising the Curtain
The theater’s next act depended on careful coordination

Shakespeare wrote that “all the world’s a stage,” but at Black Hills State University, the stage itself became the challenge. The theater sat on the second floor of an aging campus building, with a 34-foot ceiling overhead and strict weight limitations restricting how much scaffolding could be used at one time.

Lamb Painting handled existing metal ceiling beams, exposed ductwork, conduit, stage flooring, woodwork, doors, frames, and multicolor wall systems throughout the theater.  To reduce time spraying high above the floor from scaffolding, ductwork and conduit were pre-finished in the shop and re-installed.

More than 500 labor hours ultimately went into the project, but the final result left the theater ready for its next act: the university’s performing arts department.

PPD Painting
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
Painting a factory without ever shutting down

Factories don’t stop running just because the ceiling needs paint. That became the central challenge at the Nypromold facility, where PPD Painting was tasked with repainting an open deck ceiling inside a fully operational industrial plant.

PPD responded by building the entire project around weekends and staggered shifts. Crews began every Friday at noon, with one team focused on preparation and another handling spraying operations overnight and into the weekend. Saturday mornings focused on spraying ceilings, followed by demasking and detail work later in the day. Sunday shifts transitioned into walls, doors, and frames before final cleanup prepared the facility to reopen Monday morning at 7 a.m.

The project demonstrates that in industrial work, success is often measured not only by the finish itself, but in how seamlessly the work happens around everything else that can’t stop.

Martinson Painting
Restoring Neely Mansion
Careful craftsmanship brings a community landmark back to life

Historic restoration projects don’t leave much room for improvisation. At Neely Mansion, one of Washington state’s best-known historic sites, Martinson Painting spent years preparing before a brush ever touched the building. By the time work finally began in 2025, the expectations were clear: deliver a finish worthy of one of the oldest historic mansions in the state.

The timeline added even more pressure. Work needed to be completed between early September and the first week of October, forcing the team to constantly monitor Washington’s unpredictable fall weather. More than 600 labor hours ultimately went into the restoration, including detailed trim work and painstaking freehand brushwork.

Martinson Painting’s careful approach preserved both the architectural detail and historical integrity of the property. The restored mansion now stands as a visible reminder of how much preparation and patience pays off.

Colin Griffinson Inc.
Back to the Brush
The project balanced modern design elements with timeless character

On a fully rebuilt Vancouver residence, Colin Griffinson Inc. was tasked with creating a finish that blended contemporary architecture with the visible craftsmanship of traditional brushwork. 

Coordination became one of the project’s defining challenges. The house itself was relatively compact considering the amount of active work taking place, and many coatings required slower cure times. Throughout the project, the team also handled cabinetry, oversized custom doors, imported European window systems, fireplace inserts, stucco, wood fascias, and garage concrete coatings.

The final result balanced modern architecture with the warmth and depth that only hand-applied finishes can create. For Colin Griffinson Inc., the project was a reminder that while application technology continues to evolve, there is still something timeless about the look of a skilled brush finish done well.

Brick City Painting & Drywall
Special Delivery
Restoring a Sears home to how it looked in the catalog

Long before Amazon conquered deliveries, Sears & Roebuck used to sell entire houses through its famous mail-order catalog. This No. 118 home, originally ordered from a catalog more than 100 years ago, represents a unique piece of American history and belongs to Chad Jeffries, owner of Brick City Painting & Drywall. 

The restoration began with a full inspection to identify deteriorated areas before crews moved into repairs and preparation. Damaged decking boards and portions of structural framing were replaced, along with sections of siding, fascia, and soffit compromised by long-term moisture exposure. Once repairs were complete, the crew applied the primer and finish with brush and roller to stay close to the detailed trimwork.

Sears published its final catalog in 1993 and entered bankruptcy in 2018. Only a handful of Sears stores remain open today, but homes like this still stand as reminders of how the company helped shape neighborhoods across America. More than a century after first appearing in a catalog, the house has been restored to how it looks on the page.