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Trends and Style

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

Filed Under: Trends and Style

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.

 

Filed Under: Featured, Trends and Style

New Cabinet Finish Debut at Home Show

February 11, 2014 by Eric Deeter

Cabinet refinishing samples in Home Show For three years we’ve told ourselves we need to retire our Home Show booth and start fresh. But we put all of our energy and focus into making sure our client’s have great looking cabinets. Sure, getting ready for the Home Show is at the back of our mind, but we always come to the point we have to take our ten-year-old booth out of storage and spiff it up for the show.

Of course, it’s our cabinet door finishes that are the star attraction. The walls of our booth are only the background.

But last year we hit a crisis. Our home renovation forced us to act. Our Home Show booth is stored in our lower level. We never considered his when we rebuilt our basement stairs and extended our living room floor.

We had only inches to spare as we contorted the center section or our booth up the stairs. After last year’s show I cut the booth in pieces and set it on the curb to be hauled away.

So this year we have a new booth as well as some new cabinet finishes.

One of the trends we see in kitchen cabinets is a sleeker glaze look when cabinets are painted. The old-world, dirty white finishes are out. The cabinets are still glazed and have dimension and character, but they are calmer finishes that call less attention to themselves. They don’t have to make a statement or stand out.

The result is that your kitchen decor becomes a background. This is good because it gives you the option to dress your kitchen up or down merely by changing some accessories.

Sample of our  new cabinet finishBesides updating our glazed doors we included a new finish we call “Patty’s Hutch.” We create this finish with specialty paints from two sources: Caromal Colours and Pure Earth Paint.

This new finish got a lot of attention at the Home Show. We also just completed a refinish of a built-in desk and cabinets. I’ll have before and afters and a story about that project coming up soon.

We have one more show this year: the Johnson County Home and Garden show. If you are in Kansas City that weekend come by the show and see our new booth and finishes.

Filed Under: Trends and Style

DIY Nightmare Kitchen Cabinet Finish

December 13, 2013 by Eric Deeter

We got a call from a real estate investor who had purchased a bank-owned property. He had plans to renovate it and re-sell it, and he called us to take a look at the kitchen. The previous owners had done a faux finish on the kitchen cabinets and island. It looked as if they were trying to do a “pickled oak” look because they smeared a white glaze over the crevasses to “highlight” them.

Cabinet refinish 2

But the attempt to create a “faux stone” look on the panels of the island set this kitchen over the top. I don’t recall seeing any kitchen cabinets with real stone panels. The purpose of faux painting is to create something you would find in real life. For example, the artists in ancient Venice created faux marble because the homes built on stilts couldn’t support the weight of real marble. So even if the faux stone had looked real they would have been out of place on this island.

Cabinet refinish 1

But faux stone is a difficult technique to get right–as you can see from these pictures. Faux stone is more technical than just sponging on several colors of paint. This attempt at stone was just that–paint sponged on. The results were awful.

And the faux stone panels created a challenge for us as well. When we refinish cabinets we usually have the texture of the grain we can work with. But this faux finish filled the grain. Yet the rest of the cabinets still had the grain. Brenda had to find a technique that would work with both the grain texture and the smooth. She settled on a metallic base coat and glaze over the top. this created a soft glow and the glaze she did over the top created the color of wood.

The rest of the cabinets we painted an off-white with a soft glaze over the top. Of course, we finished it off with a clear coat to protect it all. Our work fit well with the other updates the investor put in to this house. It’s now on the market and getting good feedback. I’m sure it will sell soon.

 

Cabinet refinish 3

 

Oh yes. We also had a built-in hutch the previous owners did some sort of faux distressed technique. We did the same finish on the lower ones that we did on the island. And we finished the uppers as we did the main kitchen cabinets.

Filed Under: Featured, Projects, Trends and Style

Faux Finishes that Keep Their Style

August 27, 2013 by Eric Deeter

Faux finish walls

We’re working for a long-time client, refinishing her kitchen cabinets, fireplace mantle and entertainment center. The picture above is of the powder room we did 8 years ago. It still looks good and still fits the style of the house. As I looked closer at the finish I realized we did it using a sponge.

Now, we began our business back in the days when sponge painting was all the rage. And lots of DIY types were slapping paint on the wall with a sea sponge. Some of them even started small businesses doing sponge painting and “rag-rolling”. But it only took a few years for sponge painting and rag rolling to become “not cool”. If everyone had it and everyone was doing it then it wasn’t “special” any more. And part of the reason sponge painting fell from popularity so quickly is that there were a lot of amateurs doing it and getting amateur-looking results.

The reason I mention this brief history of sponge painting is to point out that we used a sponge on these walls 5 years or so after sponge painting was passe’. You see, we didn’t settle for being amateur DIY types who decided to start a business. We made it a point to find the best faux finishing schools in the nation and attend classes. And we learned the latest styles and techniques, but we didn’t just give our clients the new “hot” look. We took time to make sure that any faux finish we we did would fit the style of the house and would give a look that would stand the test of time. And we had the training to use a sea sponge to create a look that didn’t look like sponge painting.

And now our business is focused almost entirely on refinishing kitchen cabinets. But we still use the same care give our clients a look that’s going to stand the test of time. We’ve been doing faux finishes and refinishing kitchen cabinets for a long time. And we have a portfolio of some really creative and cool finishes we can do on kitchen cabinets. But our focus is on making your house look good, not to show how creative we are. We will always work hard to make your home look amazing with a style that will look good years from now.

Filed Under: Trends and Style

Will The Zillow Estimates Be Accurate for Kansas City?

February 7, 2013 by Eric Deeter

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The Zillow website has been a go-to site for people looking to buy a home or for those who are just curious about what their home might be worth.  Their “zestimates” supposedly use complex formulas to tell the value of your home.  From what I’ve seen they have such a big “fudge factor” they’re practically useless.

Now Zillow is getting into the home improvement market.  They have a new section called “Diggs” what will let you look at remodeling projects and see “estimates” of what they cost.

They supposedly have a complex formula to adjust for local price differences.  When I checked it out the location said “Kansas”.  Now Kansas isn’t one of the biggest states, but I think prices are higher in Kansas City than they are in Goodland.  One other thing I noticed is that if you filter by “budget” projects the labor cost is lower.  I’m wondering if that means you’re going to use someone less skilled than for the “upscale” projects.  The labor shouldn’t vary much between two project of similar size.  “Economy” grade materials still take the same work on install as the “luxury” materials.

They’ve also created a “Pintrest-esque” feature where you can save pictures of projects you like to show your designer or contractor.

If you’re looking at Zillow  “Diggs” before you do a project in the Kansas City metro, realize these prices are ESTIMATES.  And if you’re wanting a change in your kitchen give us a call.  Our cabinet restyling might be a cost effective way to give you a new look.  Refinishing cabinets can also be done as part of rearranging your kitchen.  We’re doing a lot of “new meets old” projects where some of the cabinets are new and we make everything match in the end.

For link to article from Bizjournals click HERE

Filed Under: Projects, Trends and Style

New Faux Finish Over Old Faux Finish

December 6, 2011 by Eric Deeter

When we started doing faux finishes “sponge painting” was the all the rage.  We took training and practiced a lot so that we could produce quality faux finishes with a sea sponge.  And we saw a lot of other people’s finishes that were just ugly.  Even faux finishes that use simple tools have to be done with skill and an artist’s eye.  We saw faux finish trends change and evolve over the years.  And we’ve worked to stay ahead of the faux finish trends.  Usually by the time a faux finish trend became the hot new thing in Kansas City we had already been doing it for months.

This week Brenda is painting over a faux finish in a powder room in an Overland Park, KS, neighborhood.  It was a faux finish that was popular 10 years ago or so.

Brenda painted the ceiling gold and is painting a red base coat over the old faux finish.  The next layer is Luster Stone rolled on.  Brenda says that the process looks deceptively easy because it uses a sea sponge roller.  However, if she doesn’t use the right touch the Luster Stone will go on the wall in blobs rather than the random pattern she needs.

She has 2 more layers to complete.  This layer looks like the old sponge painting we used to do, but the pattern of this layer will add subtle variations in the final look.  The next 2 layers will be a troweled finish using red Luster Stone.  Luster Stone is a metallic plaster product that has a slight, soft shimmer and a smooth, soft finish to the touch.  It is super durable and sticks to almost anything.  We’ve used it on floors and counter tops.  With this kind of durability I’m sure that the final finish will be looking good even into the next faux finish decorating trend.  Perhaps we’ll be around to re-faux this bathroom again.

Filed Under: Projects, Trends and Style

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