If You Wrap Kitchen Cabinets, You’ll Stay Broke
Commercial Door Wrapping Is Where the Real Money Is
Five months into offering interior film installation in Canada,
I finally started landing one commercial door-wrapping project every month.
The turning point came when I secured a contract tied to a U.S.-based kids coding franchise operating hundreds of locations
that was opening 15 locations across Greater Vancouver.
(The brand operates 260+ locations in the U.S.)
The work came through a high-performing Korean renovation company
doing over $10M in sales
They were different from most contractors.
They actively used interior film—
not because it was trendy,
but because it solved real problems.
Why They Chose Interior Film
Their approach was simple.
They purchased $100 white doors from like Home Depot,
then had me wrap them with LX Hausys interior film
(formerly LG Hausys).
This gave them:
- A custom, high-end finish
- Brand-level consistency
- And a major cost advantage
For me, this was a first deal with them.
So I made a decision early on:
Profit second. Trust first.
That decision changed everything.
How the Pricing Actually Evolved
Here’s how my door-wrapping pricing progressed—step by step.
First Projects
- Hourly rate: $30/hour
- About $240/day
- Film cost billed separately
Was it cheap?
Yes.
But this wasn’t about money yet.
In North America, hourly subcontracting is rare—
and that’s exactly why I chose it.
Why I Started Hourly (On Purpose)
- Labor law reality
Labor costs come first.
Getting paid hourly confirmed this was a legitimate contractor. - Risk reversal for the contractor
To them, I was an unknown installer.
Interior film done wrong is a disaster.
Hourly pricing lowered their risk.
They could test me
without committing to a full project price.
Third Project and Onward
- $300 per door
- Film cost included ($105 per door)
By then, they had already verified:
- My finish quality
- My speed
- And that interior film actually worked
Final Project in Canada
- $499 per door
- Film cost included ($105)
This was the peak pricing.
The Numbers (No Fluff)
Let’s break it down.
Final project pricing (per door):
- Charged: $499
- Film cost: $105
- Net profit per door: $394
Time required per door:
- ~1 hour
(film cutting + surface prep included)
Daily output (solo installer):
- 7–10 doors per day, depending on site conditions
I typically worked 10-hour days.
Result:
- 10 doors × $394 = $3,940 net profit per day
No employees.
No office.
No ads.
Just skill, speed, and positioning.
Material Reality (North America Standard)
- Standard interior door size:
32” × 80” (81cm × 203cm) - Film required per door (double-sided):
~4.1m / 161 inches - Interior wood-grain film roll price:
~$1,200–$1,500 per roll - One roll covers:
~12 doors (double-sided) - Primer cost:
Almost zero
($15 for 3kg lasts nearly a year)
One Critical Rule: Don’t Hang Your Own Doors
If you work solo:
Never handle door removal and reinstallation yourself.
- It requires extra labor
- It slows you down
- It destroys your margins
Instead, have the renovation contractor handle it.
Most are happy to do so—
because they want speed and clean results.
Yes, some doors can be wrapped without removal.
But the best finish and fastest workflow
comes from wrapping doors off-hinge.
That’s the professional method.
The Key Insight
At the beginning, I thought:
Interior film = kitchen cabinets.
That assumption was wrong.
Kitchen cabinets are slow.
Commercial doors scale.
Same material.
Same installer.
Same day.
But radically different money.
What Comes Next
This raises two obvious questions:
Seoul Interior Film 