We received a call from a home owner in Howth, Co. Dublin inquiring about having their handmade kitchen hand painted. The kitchen had been installed 20 years ago by a master cabinet maker who has since retired. It had been hand painted when it was installed by a couple of excellent painters, they had achieved a flawless finish and they are also retired now too. This left the kitchens owner in a bit of a fix, when it comes time to get the finish you would expect in a hand painted kitchen, who do you call? Its one thing to have a handy man available that can paint your garden wall and do a few bits and pieces here and there but you wouldn’t ask a handyman to have a go at a hand painted kitchen, unless of course you really aren’t that fussy!
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After
I made an appointment to see the kitchen and once there went through the system we use to achieve the best results. I also went through all the options with materials and all the different types of brands, explaining the pro’s and con’s of each. Once the customer had all the information they were then able to decide on what was going to be best for them. They decided on an eggshell finish in an antique white.
Before
After
When the day came to start on this hand painted kitchen we arrived early in the morning and started to remove all the doors and drawers first. These were then placed in the van to be brought to our workshop. Once the doors etc had been tucked away safely in the van we started work on the carcasses. First we went about removing the build up of grease that every kitchen has to some extent
Before
After
Once the cleaning was complete everything received a good rub down with a low grade sandpaper. After that the cabinets were dusted, vacuumed, wiped clean with tack clothes and then wiped down one last time with some new lint free clothes and methylated spirits. This gave us the perfect surface for the fist coat of primer
Back at the workshop all the doors, drawers and door knobs too were given a deep clean using Krud Kutter. Krud Kutter is a degreaser that really works well. Once clean everything went through the same process as the kitchen carcasses. Then everything received two coats of eggshell in Antique White.
They were given one coat on the Tuesday, One coat on the Wednesday, they were left to cure on the Thursday. Friday the doors, drawers and knobs made there return to the kitchen. The carcasses had been finished prior to returning with the doors etc.
The kitchen was reassembled and finishing touches were added here and there. The ceiling, walls and woodwork were also painted to give the whole room a fresh new look. When the customer got to see the finished article she was indeed very very happy with the results!
