The dark oak kitchen

The property is in a lovely position, but it’s a shame how the kitchen is so poorly lit with such small windows.

They knew the kitchen had been fitted 14/15 years ago by Mills and Scott, and they thought it would be a good idea to get them round, with a view to maybe lightening up the units with paint, and taking onboard any other suggestion that they might come up with. hand painted Mills & Scott kitchen. hand painted Mills & Scott kitchen

How I came to be asked to paint this kitchen

3 weeks after Mills & Scott had been to have a look at the kitchen, they still hadn’t been back in touch with Mandy.

She was chatting with a friend of mine, Lou, who mentioned me and how I paint furniture. (I’d rescued some of her furniture years before.) hand painted Mills & Scott kitchen. hand painted Mills & Scott kitchen

I must have done something right, as Mandy was straight on the phone to me. Duly I went round – I’d jump through hoops to paint furniture (sad I know!) hand painted Mills & Scott kitchen. hand painted Mills & Scott kitchen

As soon as I clocked my eyes on it, I knew it was a Mills & Scott. The kitchen was a typical in-frame, nice details. After 15 years it was also a little worn, so it was a perfect candidate for painting.

When can you start?

I measured up, as I do for all jobs, and spoke through the process and the specialist paints for furniture we use from Finland. They were keen to get the ball rolling and as luck would have it, at the time I was quoting, I had a job put back because of a delay with worktops. Usually, my lead time is around 8-10 weeks, but I said that if they were happy with the quote, I would be able to start within a week, which happens almost never.

All in all, this job seemed “meant to be”, as they made their minds up very quickly! Get on with it Jase. I love people who know their own mind. I know where I stand.

A change

It was decided to change the door knobs from wood to chrome, shaker style and classy. Hand painted Kitchen refurbish Mills & Scott

No change – the process of cleaning a tired oak kitchen

The first job is the worst, cleaning, but the most important. Get this wrong and everything fails. For this we used Krud Kutter Original.

_  Spray it on neat.

– Scratch up with a Mirlon pad.

– Allow it to soak and work it’s grease-cleaning magic.

– Give it a thorough rinse with clean water.

– Once dry, give a light sand over with the abranet abrasives, all excellent and used as standard by me and most     Good Kitchen painters.

– Tack rag over all the surface to remove fine dust.

– A final wipe with meths to leave the surface dust-free and clean as a whistle.

Prime oak

For the primer I had to use Isofix, as this kitchen is oak and the shellac would combat any natural tanning inherent in oak that might think about coming through to the topcoats.

Not only that, but using a waterborne topcoat you need stain blocking and grip, and shellac primers are the most reliable for this.

It’s essential to get shellac primer on quickly and evenly. I am rolling on with a high density foam roller having stirred the primer very well. Also it’s important not to let the primer thicken, to avoid tram lines.

Once on, it’s dry in minutes, and with two of us making use of the Erecta Rack, we can get through this stage very quickly.

Doors done, now for the frame and kick boards, which are all straightforward enough. 3 days in and the kitchen already looks James White and is never going back to natural dark wood again.

Preparing for topcoats

Now we can start lightly denibbing and start filling gaps and dings which you don’t see normally on natural finishes. To be fair, it wasn’t too bad at all. Well made!

Eventually we are ready for the top coat. I know I mentioned before about using waterborne paint with Isofix, but I actually used oil based Empire instead. It flows absolutely flat and brush mark free, but this is a purely personal choice. I could gave used the Feelings for the same brush mark free finish. If the client had insisted on water based, then I would have, but in terms of end result and durability, the two Tikkurila paint options we have are both terrific paints and both perform the same for hardness.

Finishing off

With the kitchen painted with 2 top coats, Chris & Mandy thought the hinges were too dark now and would look better chromed, so they sent them off to be done. On their return we would return and fit them.

What a transformation! hand painted Mills & Scott kitchen. hand painted Mills & Scott kitchen

We decided when painting the kitchen, to leave certain bits of the kitchen in natural wood, to give it a bespoke look.

We also gave the kitchen windows the same prep and painting treatment. This helped to further improve the light situation.

Bespoke Kitchen Epilogue

It does surprise all concerned that Mills & Scott still have not been back in touch with Chris or Mandy, not what you would expect from a prestige company. hand painted Mills & Scott kitchen

My friend and cabinet maker, did a great job adjusting and re-hanging the fridge door after some of the clips broke when taking it off. (Mick told us that it had not been designed to ever be removed, but that has now been sorted and if the kitchen is re-painted in the future, there will be no repeat dramas).

So thanks to Mick, the one to contact for your bespoke dream wooden kitchen that we can hand paint, or as he did here, update or tweak certain areas. hand painted Mills & Scott kitchen

If you have a hand painted Mills & Scott kitchen that either needs a repaint or a Dark one that needs to be lighter specialist,Kitchen and Furniture painters JS Decor are the first port of call for Hand painted kitchens in Lancashire and Cheshire.  hand painted Mills & Scott kitchen.hand painted Mills & Scott kitchen.

We are a member of HPKUK, a group of specialist kitchen and furniture specialists.