Painting Services in Bellingham, WA — Repaints Done Right
Most painting companies will take any job. I don't. Ellwanger Painting focuses on repaints — existing homes that deserve careful prep, honest work, and a finish that holds up. If you're in Bellingham or Whatcom County and your home needs new paint, not just a coat slapped over old problems, you're in the right place.
I've been doing this since 2004. Interior repaints in lived-in homes, exterior work on older Bellingham houses, and cabinet painting that actually looks like cabinets — not like someone brushed wall paint on them. Every job gets the same attention to prep, the same clean job site, and the same owner on-site making sure it's done right.
What We Paint — and How to Find What You Need
Most of the work we do falls into three categories: exterior repaints, interior repaints, and cabinet painting. Each one has its own process, its own prep requirements, and its own page with photos, details, and pricing ranges. Pick the type of project below, read through what's involved, and reach out when you're ready to talk specifics.
Exterior House Painting in Bellingham
Bellingham's weather is hard on paint. Moisture, UV, and the Northwest freeze-thaw cycle will find every weak spot in a failing paint job — and make it worse fast. Most of the exterior work we do is on older homes: wood siding, cedar, detailed trim, and surfaces that need real prep before a brush ever touches them. That means scraping loose paint, spot-priming bare wood, caulking gaps, and fixing the underlying issues rather than painting over them.
We also handle cedar siding staining and finishing using top-quality oil-based stains — including linseed oil blends — that protect the wood from the inside out and keep it from graying out or cracking over time.
- Ideal for: Homes with peeling, chalking, or faded paint; cedar and wood siding; older Bellingham houses with detailed trim
- Surfaces: Siding, fascia, soffits, trim, doors, garage doors, cedar staining and finishing
- Prep included: Scraping, sanding, spot-priming, caulking, minor wood repairs before any paint goes on
Interior House Painting in Bellingham
Interior repaints are the majority of what we do, and most of them happen in homes where people are still living — kids, pets, furniture, the whole thing. That changes how the job gets run. We move and cover what needs protecting, work room by room to minimize disruption, and use low-odor paints when that matters to you. We're not trying to get in and out as fast as possible. We're trying to leave your home looking better than we found it.
Before paint goes on, we take care of what the paint will show: drywall dings, nail holes, hairline cracks, scuffed corners. A good interior repaint starts with walls that are actually ready — not walls that just got a new color on top of old problems.
- Rooms and surfaces: Living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, hallways, ceilings, trim, doors, and built-ins
- Prep included: Drywall touch-ups, sanding, hole filling, caulking trim gaps
- Scheduling: We work around your household — room sequencing and timing that makes it manageable
- Paint: Premium products from Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore; low-VOC options available
Cabinet Painting in Bellingham — A Smarter Alternative to Replacement
New cabinets can run $10,000–$30,000 or more. If your cabinets are solid — good bones, no structural issues — but the finish is dated, yellowed, or just wrong for the kitchen you want now, painting them is worth a serious look. Done properly, it produces a finish that's close to factory-new. Done poorly, it peels within a year and looks worse than before.
The difference is prep and the right products. We clean, degrease, sand, and prime before anything else. We use enamels and lacquers formulated specifically for cabinetry — not wall paint, not all-purpose primer. The result is a hard, smooth finish that handles daily use: cleaning, steam, repeated opening and closing.
- Ideal for: Cabinets that are structurally solid but visually outdated — orange oak, builder-grade finishes, painted-over wood grain
- Process: Full cleaning, degreasing, sanding, grain filler if needed, cabinet-specific primer, finish coats in enamel or lacquer
- Finish options: Satin, semi-gloss, or matte; any color; two-tone upper/lower available
- End result: Hard, smooth finish built for a real kitchen — not brushed wall paint that chips in six months