Round Kitchen Tables

Imagine refinishing your kitchen or bath cabinets with minimal prep work and without having to strip off old paint or varnish. Imagine a raised design on the face of your cabinet doors that adds dimension and architectural interest to otherwise plain and boring cabinets. Finished in the color of your choice, your cabinetry can go from ordinary to extraordinary in no time!

Before Taking On This Endeavor Ask Yourself The Following Questions:

1. Are these cabinets worth rescuing?

2. Are they solidly built?

3. Are they securely anchored to the walls?

4. Do the hinges still work properly?

If you were able to answer yes to all the questions above or you are able to easily make necessary repairs to bring them up to speed then continue reading.

Most of our existing cabinets are sound and of good quality, but over time we just become tired or bored with them. Either the color or the style has simply become out dated. There is the desire to change but because they are sound and basically good cabinetry we cannot justify the cost for replacing them. Even refacing the cabinet doors can be cost prohibitive, especially in today's economical climate.

Here Are A Few Traditional, Yet Simple, Ways To Update The Cabinet Finish, If The Cabinet Surface Is In Fairly Good Shape And Has Very Few Nicks And Scratches

• Apply a new stain color and replace the handles and drawer pulls.

• Update them with a fresh coat of paint, new handles and drawer pulls.

• Get into a more trendy design technique such as painting a light to medium shade then apply a complimentary glaze color. Check out your local hardware and paint stores for available products. The smaller specialty paint store will be more likely to have someone available to you for instructions and help you to choose the correct products.

• Go on line to check out the many new decorative products which are now available to DIY's. There is an array of ideas for the brave at heart that still desire to have something more unique and out of the norm.

What If? After You hve Researched All The Above Options And You Still:

• Want something completely different than all the above hum drum solutions?

• Need solutions for surfaces or finishes which are badly beaten up and beyond repair?

• Want something custom made to match your decor or theme?

Some of the above techniques will require a smooth surface to begin with, but what if the surface areas have been beaten up so badly that you feel they are not salvageable for lack of a smooth surface? Maybe some of the veneer has peeled away, there is a burn, a big dent or noticeable damage has occurred.

ANSWER:

Add textured or raised designs to the surface. For example; imagine a raised "Pear Design" or a design that has the appearance of an ornate carving on the face of your cabinet doors that would add dimension and architectural interest to otherwise plain and boring cabinets. Finished in the color of your choice, your kitchen can go from blah to beautiful in no time!

There are a few products that can add texture and help to repair or hide surface flaws. This idea of adding textured designs to cover flaws is not necessarily new but in the past the only thing available was to use calk, wood putty or spackling compound, which would not always render the best results and did not give the optimal result for durability and versatility. "WOOD ICING", a new and innovative product solves that problem and was expressly created to refurbish old cabinetry and furniture without the need to strip old paint. This is a "no experience necessary" way to create modern, beautiful cabinetry. The customer needs no special skills and there is very little prep work.

WOOD ICING is:

• A latex based product with water cleanup.

• It accepts stains, paints and glazes

• Stencils, stamps and fabrics work in conjunction with this product

• You can use water or solvent based products with it

• Soap and water cleanup.

• Durable Finishes

With stencil designs also available through "WOOD ICING", you can create raised designs that look amazing but are unbelievably easy to create, giving your cabinet's new appeal. You don't have to be an artist to create a beautiful "one of a kind" finish, It only requires a little practice and an imagination. The products come with basic instructions to get you started. There is also a "HOW TO", DVD available, that demonstrates the product in action. It shows eight different techniques for cabinet doors from start to finish. With this DVD, you will also learn many little bits of information that would otherwise only come from experience with the product.

This product and application are not limited to just cabinetry. You could make over boxes, dressers, armoires, entry doors, window casings, pillars and columns, lamp bases and so on.

Remember that old family heirloom stuck in the basement or attic that you just cannot part with for sentimental reasons, but it is just "oh so ugly" you don't have a place for it? Drag it out and create a whole new finish on it and display it proudly with its' new finish designed by "You".

Fine artists are already using this product in their work, so if you have an artistic nature you will be motivated to test this product with your art and craft projects. Here a couple of creative ideas for keepsakes or gifts:
• Finding old beat up boxes at garage sales and flea markets is another way to resurface and create something unique as a gift or for resale. You could custom design a box with monograms and leather looking finish with this technique.

• Create Christmas ornaments by applying the paste over prefabricated paperMache ornaments. These can be found in any art and craft retail store. Press in a Christmas or Holiday foam stamp for an impression of an angle, reindeer or Santa, then paint it bright red and finish it with a shiny protective coat of polyurethane. Along with the ornaments finish one of those round paperMache hat boxes to match the ornaments, and present them as a set of Christmas ornaments with a matching storage box.

Here is one example and instructions for a very popular finish from "WOOD ICING" for furniture or cabinetry.

"CRACKLIN ROSE"

1. Clean and rough up the existing surface with a coarse sand paper. Remove the dust.

2. You will need to apply a bonding primer if the surface is:

Plastic or metal Has shiny shellac Melamine or Formica

3. Base paint over the primer in an eggshell or low sheen satin base latex paint. Usually a light to medium brown color will work.

4. Apply one coat of "Fissure Size" and allow it to dry thoroughly from one to three hours, depending on humidity. (This is an "optional step" skip this if you do not want cracks in your finish)

5. Tape off areas you do not wish to add texture to. Spread "TEXTURA PASTE" over the surface for complete coverage.

6. Smooth over the surface with a wet Trowel or a wet plastic smoothing tool. Having your tools wet will help to achieve a smooth surface.

7. Immediately press in a "Rose" foam rubber stamp in a random pattern. The stamp must be wet and you may have to rinse the paste out of the grooves periodically in order to achieve a clean impression.

8. This is the point in which it all looks pretty ugly, so don't stop here, keep going it all gets better.

9. Once you have your design created, allow the "TEXTURA PASTE" to dry overnight to a hard crispy surface.

10. Once the "TEXTURA PASTE" has dried thoroughly, then sand over to remove loose particles and to smooth over the really rough areas.

11. Vacuum away the dust and wipe clean.

12. Apply a heavy gel type stain that will cover well and leave a darker shade of color in the cracks, crevasses of the "CRACKLIN ROSE" design you have created.

13. Wipe off the excess stain and dry brush over the top to highlight the raised design. You want dark color in the crevasses and cracks and light color on top of the raised areas.

14. Once your stain is the way you like it, allow the stain to dry thoroughly then apply two to three coats of a SatinPolyurethane. Water based or solvent based polyurethane work equally well. This will add durability to your finish.

I recommend doing practice boards to familiarize yourself with the product and technique before starting your project. Also, practice the application of the stain or color to achieve the exact finish you desire.