Eric Deeter

Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing Disasters in Kansas City!

October 9, 2019 by Eric Deeter

“Can you come see if you can fix this mess?”

We get calls like this every once in a while. Sometimes we’ve been able to rescue a client from disaster. But one kitchen disaster stands out! The video below shows some of the mess.

Your garage shouldn’t be a contractor’s spray paint booth!

The same goes for your living room, your dining room, your basement, and your kitchen.

Some contractors are so smooth talking that they might convince you to use part of your house to spray paint on your kitchen cabinet doors and drawers. There are a few here in Kansas City that take over big parts of your house or your whole garage to refinish your kitchen cabinets.

This can go wrong quickly! You might be finding stray paint in your house months or even years later.

Faster and cheaper may not be better.

I’m amazed at how many painters never use primer. They assure you it’s not needed. They tell you, “The paint is made to stick!”

Your kitchen will probably look new and fresh when they finish. But you’ll notice the lack of primer a few months later. Oh, most of the paint will still stick to your kitchen cabinets. But the doors and drawers you handle the most will have paint missing in places.

Our process is different.

First, we take time to do the job right. We clean your kitchen cabinets, doors and drawers before we do anything else.

We take the doors and drawers to our studio so we can spray our primer and paint without making a mess in your kitchen. We lightly sand and thoroughly inspect the doors and drawers for places the lacquer finish has broken down. We look for loose joints and use glue and clamps to make the doors solid again.

The doors and drawers get a second cleaning before we prime and paint.

Second, we don’t kick you out of your kitchen. You can use your kitchen, except for when we’re right there working on your kitchen cabinets.

We use the best quality products so your kitchen will still look good years from now.

Third, we help you choose a color that works for your kitchen. Brenda is a certified True Color Expert.

We’ve seen some Kansas City kitchen refinish disasters come from a painter picking out a random “off white” that made the rest of the kitchen look dingy.

We can help you love your kitchen again.

Give us a call. We’ll be glad to help you make your kitchen feel new and fresh again.

Call: 913-441-5508

Why we decided to only paint cabinets in Kansas City

April 2, 2018 by Eric Deeter

Painted cabinets in Kansas City

We stay focused on painting kitchen cabinets

You have a lot of choices for hiring a cabinet painting company in the Kansas City area. The design trend for painted kitchen cabinets caused a lot of interest to fill the demand. House painters will tell you, “Yes, we paint cabinets!” They weren’t all that interested in cabinets before.

Others have jumped into the cabinet painting market too. These are people who have some level of DIY skills and think painting cabinets is an easy way to make money.

Spreading too thin

On the other hand we’ve seen companies expand from refinishing cabinets to offering total kitchen remodeling. Now they offer granite or quartz counter tops, tile back splash replacement as well as painting. They say it’s a convenience so you have a one-stop shop.

We’re doing what we’re good at

We made the decision to stay focused on what we’re good at. Yes, we know enough about kitchen remodeling that we could do it all. But we’d have to hire sub-contractors for everything but the painting. And the time we’d spend managing the job would be a distraction from giving you a great finish for your cabinets.

Too many people cut corners

We’ve had more calls this year to fix problems with other people’s poor quality. The sad fact is that a lot of old-time painters rush through a job and cut corners. And newbie painters just don’t know enough to do the job right.

When the paint is chipping off in a few months, or sometimes a few weeks, we know someone cut corners.

Of course you can’t expect paint to be like Captain America. It will chip if you hit it hard enough. But when we do additional work for our clients, the cabinet painting we did still looks good after several years of normal use.

We give you good quality and value

Your kitchen is usually the hub of your home. When you want help making it a place you love again, give us a call. We can help you be sure the job is done right.

Call us now: 913-441-5508

A Certified TrueColour Expert

April 27, 2016 by Eric Deeter

Getting Color Right

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Brenda has a natural instinct when it comes to color. A friend refers to her as the “Rainman” of color. Her eye for color set us apart from other Kansas City artists back when our main business was faux finishing. And it still gave our clients huge benefits when kitchen cabinet refinishing became the center of our business.

Brenda was always able to make our cabinet refinishing work just the right color to make the counter top, back splash, walls and floor harmonize perfectly.

Now Brenda has upped her game. She recently attended Specify Colour with Confidence True Colour Expert™ Training taught by international color expert Maria Killam. Professional training added to natural instincts is what makes a true professional.

Not your typical cabinet finishers

Many of our clients tell us that other cabinet refinishers merely ask them what they want the final finish to look like. They’re surprised when Brenda takes time to look at all the new colors first. She considers the counter top and backsplash that might be replaced. She looks at the wall color and the floor. Then she makes recommendations for a cabinet finish that will fit with all of them.

You don’t want to make the mistake of picking an off-white that clashes. There are hundreds of off-whites to choose from, and getting just the right undertones for your space is tricky.

Or, if you’re staying with the natural wood grain finish, you don’t want it to clash with the floor.

We get it right

Brenda’s certification as a True Color expert made her even better at getting the right color for your kitchen. She has a new set of tools to make our services even better.

You can also hire her to do a color consultation for the other areas of your home besides the kitchen. Getting you the best colors for your space is what she does.

Why We Don’t Use Lacquer on Kitchen Cabinets

December 17, 2014 by Eric Deeter

Home builders in Kansas City love putting lacquer finishes on custom kitchen cabinets. Lacquer finishes are fast, easy and cheap. A moderately skilled painter can spray lacquer on kitchen cabinets and woodwork and get good-looking finishes. Your new kitchen cabinets sparkle like a jewel. The difference is that a jewel looks good even after 10 years. Your lacquer finished cabinets won’t.

Once your house is ten years old you will notice the kitchen cabinets looking shabby. The original lacquer starts to break down, especially around your sink, stove and coffee maker. Lacquer doesn’t hold up to water and steam. And if you have the yellow oak cabinets so common in the Kansas City area, your yellow cabinets will now be some shade of ugly orange. Any wood with a stained finish will change color with age. The yellow oak changes to orange. The orange color will come even with an oil poly finish. The problem we see is that lacquer finishes also break down after 8 years or so.

Kansas City is full of yellow oak kitchen cabinets. You may have inherited the kitchen cabinets when you bought your home. However it happened, you end up with a worn and dated kitchen.

Doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

Refinishing kitchen cabinets is a big deal in Kansas City because so many people want a cost-effective solution to yellow oak cabinets. Some companies decide the best solution is putting more lacquer on your cabinets. Of course, the lacquer industry has come a long way in the past 20 years. Now the trend is to use water-borne lacquer with a catalyst hardener. It comes in colors as well as clear. And it can be tinted dark to let you keep the wood grain yet make your cabinets appear to have a walnut or darker stain.

One of our suppliers started using and selling a water-borne lacquer and raved to us about how well it worked. We decided to test it out. We weren’t impressed. It might stand up better to water better. But the big problem is that it dries brittle.

We’ve just repaired one of these lacquer finishes. It looked great when the painter finished. But it’s chipping off now. And he chipping started less than a year after they paid to have the work done.

Any finish will mar if you hit it hard enough. But lacquer chips too easily. We also saw cracks in the finish at the joints in the doors. Wood expands and contracts depending on the humidity in your home. The Kansas City dry winters always cause kitchen cabinet doors to shrink. The brittle nature of lacquer causes it to break when this happens.

Our process gives better results

We’re willing to look at new products, but we value durability and long-life over ease of use. Companies that use lacquer like it because it’s quick for them, and it looks good when they’re finished. But it might not look so good a few years down the road.

We’re doing more work for a client we helped 8 years ago and their cabinets still look great. You have to remember there is still wood under our finish. It will dent or gouge if you hit it hard enough. But we’ll continue to use tough, durable finishes and do our work by hand. Our products and processes give great looking results that last.

Faux Stone Fix to Fireplace Mantle

October 30, 2014 by Eric Deeter

Our clients asked us to work on their mantle and entertainment center as well as refinish their kitchen cabinets. The finish had to go darker, but we saw the mantle had an extra piece of trim at each end.

Our first step was to texture the wood on the ends of the mantle.

Then we added layers of color to blend with the stone on the fireplace.

The final finish looks rich and fits well with the stone fireplace.

Table Top Fabrication and Finish: A Creative Journey

April 15, 2014 by Eric Deeter

A Creative Stretch

Every so often a project comes along that stretches Brenda’s creativity. Refinishing kitchen cabinets requires her to be creative, but in different ways. Her creativity shows up in her eye for color and coordinating our refinishing work with your decor. But when we do the work on your cabinets we strive for consistency, not creativity.

So a project like our recent table top fabrication and finish is a nice change of pace. Mine is a supporting role in this story. I’m the “artist’s assistant.” I’m fascinated to see Brenda’s creative process when she’s challenged to create a work of art. And I thought you might enjoy the story of how this table top came to be.

The Challenge

Our clients had a space problem. Their glass-top dining room table overtook the room. Passage between the edge of the glass and the piano was tight. I could imagine how cramped it felt when filled with guests.

Our Solution

The plate-glass top sat on a metal-frame base. It was not attached and merely lifted off, with some effort. We suggested making a new, narrower table top that would sit on the same metal-frame base. MDF is a manufactured wood product smooth enough to make a new table top. It’s also heavy enough to stay in place. We took measurements and talked about a color palette to fit our clients’ decor.

I cut the MDF to size and did prep work: priming and painting. Brenda’s initial idea was an organic blend of colors. She began with a metallic foil treatment. Foil gives a look similar to gold leaf, but the metallic layer is much thinner. After the foil, Brenda began blending layers of color.

Table top faux finish — An unexpected direction with possibilities

Creative Detour

Some creative ideas develop according to plan. Other times Brenda gets to a point and realizes the result will not be what she had in mind. This project was one of those times. She made the decision to start over. Out came the black paint.

The color and texture showed through the paint as Brenda rolled it on. The result was an unexpected turn in the creative process. She pulled out her faux finish tools and coaxed the art from this fortunate meeting of paint, color and texture. It was unplanned. But it looked good. We asked our clients to take a look.

Table top finish — Red base coat with foil squares

They agreed that it looked good. But they didn’t think a mostly black table was what they wanted. Brenda had a alternate plan in her back pocket. It was bold. It was different. She presented her idea: a red table with gold squares and black lines. She found several square ceramic tiles and laid them on the table to illustrate her concept. Our clients thought her idea would give them a table they like.

Starting Again

We painted the table over again, with red this time. Brenda measured, laid out and taped the squares. She applied the foil. We saw it coming together. We just had to get the lines right. Brenda made her calculations for the position and spacing of the lines. Two of the lines went to a metallic green color. Black and green spatters finished out the composition. Of course we protected it all with the same durable clear coat we use on our kitchen cabinet projects.

The Moment of Truth

Creative projects often bring doubt for the artist. Do I stop now or do I add a couple more flicks of color? It looks good here, but will it look good in the dining room? We were holding our breath a little as I carried the table top in and lowered it on its base. It looked good to me. Brenda stood taking it in. I waited to see our clients’ reaction. That’s all that ever matters. They were pleased. Brenda and I let out a small emotional sigh.

We are back to working on kitchen cabinets this week. The challenge to create something unique and creative is good for us. It’s a creative stretch we need from time to time. I truly enjoy seeing Brenda work through her creative process. Her talent still amazes me.

Experimenting With a New Cabinet Refinishing Technique

March 23, 2014 by Eric Deeter

It’s a small picture. Just a corner of a magazine page. Our client likes the look of the cabinet pictured here.

Brenda went to work. The colours needed to be tweaked to fit the palette in the rest of the kitchen. It appeared we might be able to use our overglaze process with the right shades to get this effect. But after several attempts Brenda knew she had to try a different approach.

We Almost Never Use Oil Products

I have to add the “almost” here. It’s very rare that we use any oil products. We like the low odour and easy clean up of water-based products.

We are adamant in our belief that oil-based gel stains are not a good solution to overglaze the Golden Oak cabinet finishes so common here in Kansas City. Gel stain, like all oil-base stains, is intended to soak in to unfinished wood. There are no binders in oil-base stains. When you stain your lacquer finished cabinets you run the risk of adhesion problems. Believe me, you don’t want to find out a year from now that your new finish comes off with a minor scrape.

Stain Over Paint

There’s a big difference, however, when you use oil stain over paint. As long as you do the prep work needed, paint will stick. And even the best paint is porous. You may have discovered this fact by accidentally spilling something like wine on a painted surface.

Chalk paint has the wonderful properties of sticking like crazy to whatever you paint and being porous. Brenda thought it was worth a try. Chalk paint comes in standard colours. So Brenda started mixing a little of this with some of that to get the grey she needed.

Success

She left it to dry overnight and then went to work with gel stain and Turpentine. She was pleased with the results. The combination of chalk paint and oil, gel-stain gave her the ability to move the colour around in ways a water-based glaze would not allow. The stain will adhere well to the chalk paint. We’ll have the option to finish it with either wax or our go-to water-base topcoat. Either way, this finish will be as durable as it is beautiful.

Of course we will add this to all of the other choices we offer to refinish kitchen cabinets in the Kansas City area. There are still a lot of Golden Oak kitchens out there.

Refinishing a Desk With Our Newest Technique

February 20, 2014 by Eric Deeter

When we refinished Anna’s kitchen cabinets her boys were in middle school and high school. A few years later she asked us to refinish her worn hand rails. Her boys were older now. She pointed out the desk her boys used for their gaming computer. It had the kind of wear and tear boys often create on furniture.

Anna thought it might be good to wait until her boys were a little older before we refinished their desk.

This year her oldest son is in college and she called us to come and refinish the desk. We realized it will still get used as a desk so what we do has to be durable as well as gorgeous.

Brenda spends countless hours researching, studying and testing new refinishing products. She also networks with other finishing artists across the country. Two of these artists have developed products for cabinets that truly shine. Caromal Colours is a specialty paint line for furniture and cabinetry. Pure Earth Pigments is a mineral paint with properties similar to chalk paint.

We discovered a finish using these two products. We named this finish, “Patty’s Hutch.” (We’re more creative with paint than with names.)

Patty’s Hutch finish requires more steps and attention to detail than our average kitchen cabinet finish. And it’s a finish more suited to islands, vanities, desks or furniture than kitchen cabinets. In other words it will work well on accent pieces better than a whole kitchen.

We had a sample of Patty’s Hutch finish in our booth at the home show, and everyone who saw it loved it.

Of course we always make sure the style of whatever finish we put on your kitchen cabinets is going to compliment the decor in your kitchen or any other space we refinish for you. Making your home look good is what we do. And we will continue to stay on the cutting edge of new products and methods so you’ll have the best results possible.