The Unicorn Hunter's Guide to Finding Painters Who Work for Exposure (and Maybe a Bagel)
It started with a simple garage door repaint.
Doug Aldeen, a long-time Boise native, was on the hunt for a painting company that could take the project off his hands and do it right. All while not breaking the bank, ideally.
“We live in an uncertain economy,” Aldeen says. “Yes, I wanted the door to look good, but I also couldn’t pay for a premium painter with jacked up prices.”
That’s when things got interesting.
Aldeen’s daughter, a high school junior, showed him a TikTok video of a local painter sharing splashy, flashy videos of himself painting with unlikely objects: a rolled up t‑shirt, a broom, even a modified leaf blower.
“I reached out to him and said that if he could do the job, I’d let him take all the pics he wanted. I meant in addition to paying him, of course, but that’s the crazy thing… He sent me a proposal with no dollar figure. Just numbers of photos and videos, plus I’m contractually obligated to share all of his videos for 3 months. I mean, okay?”
Hue New Painting arrived four days later, armed with not only drop cloths and tape, but also four GoPros, studio lighting, and approximately 13 gallons of matcha tea.
Maybe it was a contact high from all the avocado toast wafting through his windows, but Aldeen suddenly felt inspired. He laid out a table of snacks: all gluten-free, dairy-free, and locally/ethically sourced. Free range? Of course. He then hid inside his house and watched through the window.
Over the next three hours, four more painting companies showed up, eying the snacks, then the house, then taking exploratory selfies. Each one arrived in either an antique VW or an electric vehicle, driven by bearded, tattooed painters on the hunt for likes.
“They come for the food and stay for the exposure,” Aldeen said, peering through his blinds at a 42-year-old painter named Archer with a PhD in Invisible Habitats. “It’s unreal. There’s a crossposting, hashtagging frenzy out there. And they just keep coming.”
The garage door took three weeks to paint, unfortunately, but the results are undeniable. “I was a little worried when it was converted into a mural,” Aldeen said. “But we got back on track when Old Skewl Aesthetics painted it a colonial gray.”
Since then, Aldeen has had much of his home painted (and repainted) by the local painters, especially since he received permission to host a weekend farmer’s market.
“I’m going to start doing this every spring,” Aldeen says with a smile. “Maybe I’ll call it Matcha Madness.”