First Person: Affordable Chicagoland Paint Contractors? Found One!

I needed a bathroom painted. Badly. For all the right reasons. The walls looked shabby-especially after having crisp, white ceramic tile installed so my guest bath floor no longer imitated chunks of glossy egg yolks spilling from corner to corner.

To save money, I invested in a sturdy mallet, a crowbar and protective gear and experienced, firsthand, what contractors undergo when chiseling ceramic tile cemented in place around the time Caesar conquered the world. My motivation was simple: I was desperate to save bucks on my bathroom refurb and frankly, I welcomed the chance to smash unmovable objects into smithereens for too many reasons to mention here.

What's someone without a lot of money to do in the rarified suburbs of Chicago--where price tags on goods and services cause downstate Illinoisans to laugh out loud when comparing their prices to ours? Find a savior.

In this case, I needed to find a painting savior. At the onset of my search, I gathered quotes, considered doing the job myself and grew so frustrated, I was about to leave the wall as is---until an intriguing flyer missed my trash bin, landed on my floor and caught the cat's attention. Reaching for it, I spotted the headline saying, in essence, we paint small rooms for $99.

Say what? $99 to do my small bathroom? What's the catch? I headed for the contractor's website, $99PerRoom.com and learned that there was no catch. My bathroom fit size criteria for a $99 paint job and since I wanted white walls, there was no additional color mixing charge. White paint comes standard and is included in the cost of the job. Turns out, an environmentally safe formulation is used to boot.

$99PerRoom.com is the brainchild of young suburban Chicago entrepreneur Chris McCarthy. He's done contracting work most of his life and holds a real estate license, but admits to having grown tired of listening to people complain that their budgets couldn't cover the amount of decorating work necessary to spruce things up. Could I relate? You bet your paint can opener.

Like the flyer that narrowly escaped my cat's claws, McCarthy's marketing instincts kicked in when the idea of $99PerRoom dawned because the concept could kill three birds with one stone: He could do what enjoyed, own his own business and establish a unique niche that's so price-driven, customers like me can't help but be attracted to his concept.

He's no fool, by the way. I recall being so excited about the price attached to my bathroom walls that I upped my order to include a second project. That's how much money I saved.

Here's the beauty of $99PerRoom.com: You head for the website and consult the chart on the home page to figure out your final room painting cost based on your measurements and the addition of a color that adds about 20 bucks to the cost. Receive a free estimate based on your own figures and a detailed invoice arrives in your e-mailbox. My experience was idyllic.

McCarthy's website is packed with information about everything from the story behind his mission to make room painting costs affordable to his use of green paint products. His concern for the ecosystem doesn't end with his paint choices: McCarthy and his crew regularly undertake volunteer clean-up jobs in the community; they tackle unique ecological challenges like removing garbage from wooded areas, waterways and easements.

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First Person: Affordable Chicagoland Paint Contractors? Found One!