Kitchen reface

For the last 2 months, I have been working on a kitchen reface job..6 weeks of it on just doing the finish on the doors and drawer faces as well as making the cabinet uppers too, the bases, I refaced with Cherry veneer and stained and finished to match..it’s been a very long row to hoe..When I first met with the clients, they basically wanted the black hood enclosure, which was fine by me, then the lady asked if I could make all of her existing cabinets black..I stood in the middle of her kitchen, family room and noticed that everything she had was black..the tables..chairs..corner cabinets,,clock..hutch..coffee table..fireplace mantel, entertainment cabinet..everything was black..(her husband hand painted everything) I told her that while although, yes, I could, I would not recommend it..that it would be way too much black in her house.. she thought for a minute and asked me what I recommended, so after several hours of going back and forth..we came up with a dark cherry color..but she wanted me to make the island black and the hood enclosure black but everything else the dark cherry..the pictures show a before and after..the before is the flat paneled doors and lighter tan color (pictures 2 and 3), the after is of course, the cherry I did..this finish job was NOT a fast get it done job..it wasn’t..the finish schedule alone took 7 steps between each step to get this to turn out the way it did..Believe it or not..there’s 2 pre-conditioner coats followed with 4 different colors, then a vinyl sealer and 2 different toner coats, and 2 coats of clear pre-cat lacquer and scuff sanding between each coat. It’s what is called a “Layered” stain job..and it took a lot of time..but I think the results speak for themselves. the wood is solid cherry and we all know how cherry is a lover of blotching, especially with these deeper colored stains..thus the pre-conditioner (Charles Neil Pre-Conditioner)..it worked perfectly..the stain flowed and there was zero blotching even on the end grain.

I was glad when I finally finished and I really liked how it all came together at the end..the clients added more work which I will do and post pictures then..

Thanks for looking..

Randy

-- Randall Child http://www.racfurniture.com/