Finishes
Paint Finishes
We normally finish the painted elements of our cabinets with either a quality satinwood oil paint or with a 2 part polyurethane spray finished lacquer. The oil paint can be sprayed but most often it is applied with a foam roller so as to eliminate any unwanted roller hairs and dragged through neatly with a brush. This hand-finished look is neat and durable but also gives the furniture a more homely traditional look which cannot be obtained from the majority of the larger cabinet companies. Great care is taken to drag the brush through in straight lines watching for any drips or contaminates. There will be tiny traces of dust visible if you run your eye across the panel at a close range but this adds to the piece and stops it from being a soulless massed produced piece of furniture. A brushed finish can sometimes be touched up depending on the size of the element it is used on, if not it is a simple job of putting a new coat of paint on to repair the item.
On the correct piece of furniture a spray finish can look amazing. Sprayed elements are not so easy to touch up should they become scratched or chipped, although you can attempt to mask smalls blemishes by dabbing the paint carefully with a brush. Where large areas need to be re-sprayed, a spray-booth can be erected in situ to respray panels that cannot be removed.
The sprayed elements have the advantage of being perfectly smooth which is often complimentary to modern, minimalist pieces. For a matt sprayed finish, prices are roughly £60 per square meter, and a gun finished gloss is about £110 per square meter including the vat charged by the sprayers. There are lots of other spray finishes available such as soft touch Nextel suede effect, leather look or polished high gloss to name but a few.
Lacquers, Oils or Waxes
If you go for a wood lacquer, oil or wax you need to decide whether you wish to maintain the item with maintenance oils and thus keep a more natural feel to the wood which is also spot repairable. Or whether you’d like a more maintenance free finish which is not repairable but offers a slightly more hard-wearing finish through creating a solid film over the wood’s surface. There are also lacquers that create films as thick as 2 or 3mm which can be re-sanded. However this finish takes you quite a long way from the natural wood feel of a piece and is mainly used in the boating industry or for desk surfaces.
Solid Surface Finishes
If solid surfaces such as Corian or Starron are used as part of your piece (perhaps as a worktop), the sanding finish needs to be considered. These surfaces can be sanded to different levels to create a range of finishes: a matt finish shows up less scratches than a gloss and also costs less to achieve. But many people go for gloss to achieve a highly polished, light-reflecting, modern finish. Solid surface materials are repairable should an accident occur or the surface needs reviving after a few years of use.