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Family-Owned · Tampa Bay · Est. 2013

Started with a brush.
Stayed
painters first.

Marco DePaulo founded Brushwork Co. in 2013 with one truck, one ladder, and a brush in his hand. Thirteen years later we run three crews and a dedicated cabinet shop. The business model has not changed: pour over fewer jobs, finish them right, deliver the touch-up bag at final walkthrough. We charge 18% more than the median Tampa Bay painting quote — and we still book 4 weeks out.

Tampa exterior painter on ladder against Florida home — Brushwork Co. founder
FOUNDER · MARCO DEPAULO
"You can't fake the prep. It's the part nobody sees that makes the part everybody sees."
The Backstory

Built around the prep.
Not the paint.

Before Brushwork, Marco spent eight years as a painter for a regional commercial contractor — strip-mall storefronts, apartment complex turns, hotel renovations. He saw the pattern repeat: thin margins on residential paint pushed contractors to skip the prep work in order to make the math pencil. The crack patterns and peeling failures Marco saw in three-year-old paint jobs across Tampa Bay all came back to the same root cause: they painted over surfaces that needed prep.

Brushwork was built around the inverse principle. Spend the time on prep. Charge accordingly. Don't chase the bottom of the market. Today we're roughly 18% more expensive than the median Tampa Bay residential painting quote. We're also still standing behind paint jobs we did in 2014 that haven't faded.

Today we run three crews and a dedicated cabinet shop. Marco walks every quote in person. Tessa Romero is our second estimator (six years in the trade, runs the cabinet shop). Hugo Alvarez is our lead painter (11 years, did all the cut-in work on the Hyde Park whole-house portfolio that's our calling card). The crews don't grow during busy seasons by adding day-laborers — we just take fewer jobs and book customers further out.

Operating Principles

Four rules.
Every job, every season.

Not slogans. These are the operating decisions that keep our paint looking new at year five. Most of them cost us margin we choose not to take back.

[ 01 ]

Prep before paint

Day one of every job is prep. Masking, drop cloths, patching, sanding, priming bare drywall and bare wood. We don't open a can of paint until prep is done. Most paint failures are prep failures — bonding to a clean primed surface is forgiving; bonding to a dirty unprimed surface is not.

[ 02 ]

Premium paint, two coats

Sherwin-Williams or Benjamin Moore premium lines. Never the contractor-grade discount paint. Two coats minimum on every wall, even if the spec sheet says "one-coat coverage." The 18% premium for premium paint plus second-coat labor is what hits the five-year warranty mark.

[ 03 ]

Same lead foreman, start to finish

The lead foreman who quotes your job is the lead foreman who runs the crew on day one and the lead foreman who does the final walkthrough on day three. No swapping. The lead foreman knows your house, your dog, your color choices, and the corner of the master bedroom where the previous painter botched the patching.

[ 04 ]

Touch-up bag at the keys

At final walkthrough we hand you a touch-up bag. Every paint color we used, in a labeled jar with the paint name and code. So when you scuff a wall in year three you can do a 5-minute touch-up instead of repainting the whole room. Most customers tell us this is the part they didn't know they wanted.

The Crew

Twelve people.
Three crews.
One cabinet shop.

Every Brushwork painter is W-2, background-checked, and trained on our prep-first methodology. We don't subcontract painting work. The painter on your job is on our payroll.

/ FOUNDER · 13 YRS

Marco DePaulo

Owner / Lead Estimator

Founded Brushwork in 2013 after 8 years in commercial painting. Walks every quote in person. Still on every exterior pour over 2,500 sq ft. PCA-certified painter and color consultant.

PCA Certified FL #PT0017224 Bilingual EN/ES
/ ESTIMATOR · 6 YRS

Tessa Romero

Second Estimator / Cabinet Shop

Joined Brushwork in 2020 from a cabinet refinishing specialist in Sarasota. Runs our dedicated cabinet shop and handles cabinet refinish quotes. Walks roughly half of all quotes — Marco still walks the rest.

Cabinet Specialist Spray Booth Cert
/ LEAD PAINTER · 11 YRS

Hugo Alvarez

Lead Painter / Cut-In Specialist

Eleven years in the trade. Hand-cuts every wall-to-ceiling line without painter's tape — that's craft. Runs the South Tampa and Davis Islands route. Customer-requested by name on most repeat jobs in those neighborhoods.

Hand Cut-In 11 yrs in trade
/ FOREMAN · 7 YRS

Jeremiah Holt

Crew Foreman / Brandon Side

Brandon and Riverview route lead. Trained at Brushwork from day one — never painted for anyone else. Specialty: complex prep on older homes (1960s-80s drywall is unforgiving).

Heritage Spec Drywall Repair
/ FOREMAN · 4 YRS

Cassandra Yates

Crew Foreman / Pinellas Side

Pinellas-side dispatch lead. Came up through Brushwork's apprenticeship program. Specializes in exterior pours under tight weather windows — knows when to push through afternoon thunderstorms and when to call the day.

Exterior Spec Weather Reader
/ OFFICE · 8 YRS

Patricia DePaulo

Operations / Insurance Coordinator

Pulls every permit, schedules every job, manages billing and insurance. Handles all storm-claim coordination with adjusters. The voice on the phone when you call us. Has a faster mailing-address recall than Google Maps.

Insurance Coord Bilingual EN/ES
Credentials

Licensed, insured,
and publicly verified.

[ 01 ]

Florida Painting License #PT0017224

Active and in good standing since 2013. Public record at the Florida DBPR. Annual renewal current. Zero consumer complaints filed in 13 years of operation.

[ 02 ]

PCA member · Sherwin-Williams Proferred

Painting Contractors Association member since 2015. Marco holds PCA certification. Sherwin-Williams Proferred contractor — we get manufacturer support on warranty claims and advance product training before public release.

[ 03 ]

$2M general liability + workers' comp

Real coverage, not the legal minimum. Certificate of insurance available before mobilization. We've had three claims in 13 years — all minor furniture damage from drop cloth slips, all paid out, all kept the customer.

[ 04 ]

BBB A+ · Google 4.9 (248 reviews)

Public reputation. Never solicited with discounts or incentives. Customer concerns are handled directly by Marco or Patricia — no offshore call center, no escalation queue, no "manager review" delays.

Empty room with masked walls and paint buckets ready for prep — Brushwork Co. portfolio
PORTFOLIO · INTERIOR REPAINT
"Day one is prep. Day two is paint."