This article refers to hand painting a bespoke hand made kitchen which I was commissioned for back in 2013, as well as some stunning dressing room furniture. The project was at Barnby Moor, Nottinghamshire and was supplied and fitted by James Greensmith Interiors of Nottingham.
James has a wealth of knowledge and experience in fitting high end bespoke furniture, he has previously worked direct for Clive Christian Kitchens besides a few more prestige hand made kitchen and furniture manufacturers.
Hand painting this bespoke hand made kitchen was part of a high end specification refurbishment project to a large 10 bedroom house just off the A1 on the edge of Sherwood Forest (Robin Hood Country).
To give you an idea of the size of this project, the top of the oven canopy and the detailed pediment above the two large pilasters stand at almost 10 feet high and you could fit a family sized saloon car into the area that the central island unit takes up with the deep black granite that sits over it, which took six of us to lift in to place.
The size of this project was big and grand, unfortunately the timescale wasn’t! I needed to work quickly, accurately and methodically. With every room in the house being renovated and the client keen to move in by Christmas eve, the pressure was on!
The colour was mixed to an equivalent of F&B New White in Furniture Feelings, I used 1 x FF undercoat and 2 x FF top coats. all paint was tinted to New White and was applied over a factory finish white primer.
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“As a specialist kitchen & furniture painter, this type of work is top end stuff and when the client is purchasing a kitchen that costs similar to a (Bentley Continental GT) luxury performance car, then not only do you need to know what your doing but the products your using also have to be top end stuff! That’s why I specified, Tikkurila Furniture Feelings Paint from Holmans Specialist Paints.”
“When your painting kitchens and furniture at any level, its the paint finish that people notice first and that’s why you need a quality reliable paint system to not only back up your workmanship but your reputation aswell.”
This job was on a tight deadline (Christmas Eve) to be exact and several trades were scurrying around, everyone of them trying to get their own jobs finished in time. As you can imagine there was lots of airborne dust from all the banging, sawing and sanding going off in various areas of the house, not the ideal surroundings for hand painting high end bespoke kitchens but as they say “the show must go on!”
One of the great advantages of using this paint system in this type of environment is that Feelings and Helmi Furniture Paint is waterborne acrylate latex finishing paint which dries quickly and unlike traditional solvent based paints that stay wet for 16+ hours, the quick drying time means that contamination to the wet surface is reduced dramatically in comparison, this intern saves on unnecessary labour time flatting back surfaces that airborne particles have settled upon and dried into the wet paint film.
The painters and decorators who were working along side me on this job were amazed at the finish (see attached picture of the finish on the door) I was able to achieve on the kitchen and furniture, compared to the well known branded solvent based trade paints they were applying to the rest of the woodwork throughout this 10 bedroomed period house.
Despite the tight deadlines and disruption this project came out extremely well and the Greensmith Interiors, the Client and myself were extremely happy with the end result.
If you own a bespoke hand made kitchen or furniture that is painted or in natural wood and are considering having it painted, please feel free to Contact Me for any advice. I would be more than happy to offer you the benefit of my knowledge and experience in painting quality hand made furniture.
