Smallbone kitchens are at the top end of the bespoke handmade kitchen market, and choosing the right painter to paint a 100k+ kitchen is an important decision. To begin with you need to find a kitchen painter that paints by hand, not a spray painter. There are a lot of so called ‘specialist kitchen painters’ out there and choosing the right one can be difficult. A lot of kitchen painters seem to pride themselves on the speed they can paint a kitchen, and whilst efficiency is important, you can’t cut corners.

Over the years I have been contacted by a depressing large amount of people who have chosen the ‘quick and cheaper’ option, only for paint system to fail because the wrong products were used and the all important preparation stage was rushed or overlooked completely. Having worked as a high end specialist kitchen painter for over 20 years, I have a lot of experience with ‘Smallbone‘ kitchens, and know what’s involved to create a showroom quality finish that will last for many years.

The clients had bought the kitchen a number of years ago and had actually been very disappointed with the original paint finish (seen in a couple of the images above) as it had a surprising amount of lumps, bumps, brush marks and drips in it. It would need a lot of preparatory work to put it right, so every inch was carefully and thoroughly sanded so that all the bits, as well as the original dragged paint effect, was sanded perfectly smooth ready for the new more contemporary single colour finish the clients now wanted.

During the consultation we discussed the processes and materials I would use and also looked at various colour options. After supplying a few samples, the chosen colour was ‘Farrow & Ball’s ‘Stony Ground’, which I had accurately tinted in my specialist kitchen paint. After many days of thorough preparation, priming and top coating the end result was a meticulously hand painted silky smooth, brush mark free finish that brought this kitchen back to life and showcased the lovely detailing and quality cabinetry work. The clients were over the moon with the results and later booked me in to paint their bedroom furniture, happy days!

If you’d like to learn more about this particular project, see more ‘before, during and after’ images and see how I went about things, please visit my project Blog for this commission – http://imaginativeinteriors.co.uk/hand-painted-smallbone-kitchen-wakefield-blog

Lee works as a specialist kitchen painter throughout Yorkshire and is within easy reach for projects in Harrogate, Leeds, Ripon, Thirsk, Ilkley, Skipton, Wakefield, York, Wetherby, Halifax, and the surrounding areas.