BERKLEY — For Berkley resident Maria Viveiros Ferreira, owner of Everlasting Charm Cabinetry & Furniture Refinishing, business has been booming since she went into business.

In 2016, Ferreira had the urge to paint and resell an older piece of furniture. She heard about chalk paint as a good option to achieve a worn, distressed or vintage look without sanding or priming. For Christmas that year, her family gave her a can of Annie Sloan chalk paint, and she got to work.

Soon, she was refinishing more pieces for resale.

“They were selling really fast,” Ferreira said. “And I thought maybe there’s a business here. So I just kept at it.”

Though she couldn’t have known, Ferreira went into business a few months later in 2017 when a friend asked if she painted kitchen cabinets, too.

She didn’t, but she would, she replied.

The painter and client both happy with the result, business took off.

New business with plenty of business

“It was just crazy, business just kept coming in, kitchen after kitchen. Since I started in 2017, I’ve been crazy busy. Right now I’m booking more than a year out.”

At the same time, Ferreira was employed as a house cleaner, with a solid list of longtime clients. But when her schedule began to get out of hand between the housecleaning business and painting jobs, her husband, George, encouraged her to go full time.

“He said 'You can’t do both.' And I said, ‘OK, if I can get enough bookings for six months I’ll quit cleaning.’ Well, then I was like, ‘Let me see if I can get it to nine months.’ And that didn’t take long. I was just like, holy smokes, it just kept going and going. And there’s no end in sight.”

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Along the way, the business that started out as Chalk Paint Charm, at the suggestion of her daughter, Lillie, was renamed Everlasting Charm, to reflect Ferreira’s intent to offer high-quality cabinet refinishing work meant to last.

Today, Everlasting Charm is booking into 2024, and though the long waiting list is disclosed at the beginning of new client meetings, business keeps coming in.

And while Ferreira can still refinish furniture and offers services to update brick-style fireplaces, refinishing cabinets has proved to be an in-demand niche she’s grateful to have discovered.

Building a new kitchen vs. transforming the existing kitchen

Cabinet refinishing is an attractive option for homeowners who can’t or are not ready to tear the kitchen out and start anew — however much they may want to.

Ferreira says a lot of cabinets she works on are in great condition and only outdated or undesirable in terms of color. Add new paint, new hardware, new counters and/or a new backsplash and it’s a potent transformation along the lines of a brand new kitchen, at a fraction of the cost.

“I had a friend who wanted to do a new kitchen and the estimate was close to $40,000. She called me to do her cabinets, and she also did new countertops and a backsplash, and it was about $11,000.

“It’s just a great way to go, a total transformation without spending too much.”

Ferreira says she’s left the chalk paint behind, along with it the luxury of not having to spend hours sanding and priming in preparation for paint.

“It’s good for DIYers,” she said of chalk paint, looking back on her own start, “if you don’t want to sand or prime but want to create a new look. If you’re looking for minimum work and a new look chalk paint is the way to go. But if you want something durable, long-lasting chalk paint is not a good choice for that.”

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Quality work meant to last, no shortcuts

For all cabinet refinishing jobs, Ferreira scrubs and sands down to the bare wood all the doors and frames. Then she applies two coats of primer and two or three coats of paint, depending on the color. She says, on average, she spends four days at the client’s house prepping the cabinet frames. The rest of the work is done in the workshop at home.

She recently transformed the garage into a proper painter’s workshop, with insulation and heat and air conditioning for the climate control needed to paint, dry and store cabinet doors. In all, the works takes about two weeks to complete.

“For me, it’s all about duration and integrity. I go above and beyond for my clients and do works that holds up, that lasts.”

Customers often ask if she can skip the sanding, or maybe just do one coat of primer.

“I just don’t do that. If you want it to last you have to go down to the bare wood, and always two coats of primer. If you’re not willing to pay for the work of sanding and two coats of primer, then I’m probably not the person for the job.”

Get in line now

“People always ask me, ‘why do you book so far out?’ and I say, ‘I have three kids in college. I have to,’” Ferreira said with a laugh.

Along with daughter Lille, 21, Ferreira has two sons, Tyler, 22, and Aaron, 19.

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But people are willing to wait.

“I have five consultations booked right now, and they all know that I am booking into 2024. But they still want to meet with me.

“I love what I do. There are parts of the job that are hard, like sanding everything down to bare wood, that’s a lot of work. The other day I posted on Facebook, ‘I love sanding crown molding, said no one ever.’ I have a lot of sanders that make the work easier, but you have to manually sand all that stuff.

“But when I see the smile on my client's face when I finally put back the cabinet doors and it all comes together, it makes all the hard work worthwhile.”

Taunton Daily Gazette staff writer Jon Haglof can be reached at jhaglof@tauntongazette.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Taunton Daily Gazette today.

This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: Everlasting Charm cabinet repainting business booms for Berkley owner