Our Painters Blog – Tips and Tricks from Trade

You can use this process at home to refinish your kitchen cabinet doors.  It is similar to the methods Sharrard Painting follows for professional cabinet refinishing: A)  Take them off:  Remove, label doors and all other hardware.  See our blog post on Tips for Painting Kitchen Cabinets for more information about this. B)  Wash Doors:  unfortunately not an optional task, all doors must be washed with tri-sodium phosphate or a comparable de-greaser.  It’s almost a type of dry washing since the doors cannot get too damp or else they will warp, loosen or suffer other damage.  You need to scrub … Continue reading “How to Paint Kitchen Cabinet Doors – The Complete Step by Step Process“

Here are some handy notes for the local cabinet painting contractor in Toronto, Mississauga, or the Oakville area.  If you are thinking of providing cabinet refinishing as a service these are some factors you need to consider. Space and Spray Booth: to paint doors and to have space to allow the doors to dry and cure.  Sharrard Painting & Fine Finishing has a 2500 sq ft painting and fine finishing shop with a compliant spray booth located in central Oakville.  Lacquer vs Paint:  professional cabinet painting requires the use of lacquer – post catalyzed lacquer is the best to use.  It … Continue reading “Professional Cabinet Painting – Notes for Contractors“

By Todd Sharrard.  When refinishing kitchen cabinets the painting of base cabinetry refers to the refinishing of articles that cannot be removed and painted off site.  In your standard kitchen this includes things such as the kick plates, gable ends, valance and crown mouldings; it can also refer to the painting of the stile and rail edge banding that surrounds each cabinet carcass. This is our refined process for spray painting the on-site portion of any kitchen cabinet refinishing project – your typical 30 to 45 piece kitchen will take two people about two days to go through this entire process (the on-site work only). … Continue reading “Spray Painting Kitchen Base Cabinets, Kick Plates, Crowns & Gable Ends.“

We often receive requests to quote the refinishing of oak kitchen cabinets to a solid pigmented finish such as white, off-white or mid-tone colour. Spray painting finished oak cabinet doors to white or lighter colours, in general, can be a real challenge. The presentation of the grain is always an issue.  We find that customers can sometimes not be happy with the results so we put together this blog entry to detail what to expect when spray painting oak cabinet doors. Oak is a very porous type of wood – the gain has deep crevices that cannot be penetrated by … Continue reading “Notes on Painting Oak Cabinets“

Spray Painted Furniture using Kem Aqua By Sherwin Williams – the colour is Ben Moore Black magic! We only do a limited number of furniture pieces per year.  Turn around time is typically 3 to 4 weeks.

For this project we used Ben Moore Advance done in a pearl finish.  Its a water-based alkyd, very durable but takes a very long time to dry. Although it would have been nice to paint the doors using a lacquer its not to practical if the customer is doing the rest of the trim (casing and baseboards) themselves.  You need a system that both you can the customer can apply  – Ben Moore Advance or Sherwin Williams Pro Classic are good for this – the down side, as i already mentioned – its take too long to dry and that … Continue reading “Spray Painted French Doors“

This grand kitchen was recently refinished by Sharrard Painting and Fine Finishing.  This designer kitchen built by Retaylors in 2004 was in need of a fresh coat.  And thats what we did; over 130 pieces were removed and taken back to Retaylors finishing facility (which we manage) for a wash, sand, prime and two finish coats.   The colour is Barvarian Cream and the black – is just that “Black”; both Ben Moore colours.  The product finish was KCI (Katalic Coatings) post cat lacquer done in a 25 sheen.

Oakville, Ontario:  Sharrard Painting and Fine Finishing through its association with Retaylors just completed the refinishing of the new Coaches Corner for the Staple Center in Los Angeles.  The project involved the finishing of over 100 pieces of solid birch and birch veneer.   Each piece under went the following finishing schedule: 150 grit sanding Staining – dry for 24 hours Application of Supergard Valspar Clear – Sheen 25, via Graco 490 with 410 tip Sanding with 320 grit Application of Supergard Valspar Clear Sanding with 500 grit Application of Supergard Valspar Clear Do to fire code regulations every piece had to be sealed on … Continue reading “Project Review – LA Kings / Staples Center “

ANCASTER, ONTARIO.  These cabinets were refinished by Sharrard Painting and Fine Finishing last fall.  They were spray painted using an 395 Air Assisted Sprayer from Graco for the shop work and a Capspray 8100 (3 stage turbine) for the on site work.  The colour is CC-20 Decorators White.  The cabinet doors are made of very heavy and solid MDF core board.  They were primed with two coats of Kem Aqua Surfacer and  two coats of Kem Aqua Loss Gloss Blending White. Update 2020:  Sharrard Painting does not use Kem Aqua Lacquer any more.  It does not have durability and wear … Continue reading “Spray Painted Kitchen Cabinets Done in Sherwin Williams Kem Aqua Lacquer“

Picking the right primer is one of the critical factors to delivering  quality painting product on budget.  A good primer will seal the surface allowing both easy and even distribution of the finish product.  Primers can also be used to build up or level out a surface.  The right primers can be very effective at filling in subtle surface variations and moving you closer to creating that perfect finish.  Knowning the right primer to use will put you on the right path. When to use primers.  Anytime you have unfinished or bare wood or unfinished drywall you should be applying a sealer … Continue reading “Primer Recommendations for Everyday Painting Projects“

As an exterior painters in Oakville, Mississauga and Burlington we sometimes get questions from home owners about the painting of exterior brick surfaces.  To help alleviate any miss understandings I have assemble this little blog posting for anyone thinking about the painting of their exterior brick walls. Tools and Materials Needed: Concrete or Brick bonding primer / sealer:  If the surface has never been painted before then a sealer coat should be used.  Since latex paint will stick to brick surfaces easily we use this product as more of a sealer than a bonding primer.  If not sealed correctly brick and concrete surfaces … Continue reading “How to Paint Exterior Brick Surfaces Like a Professional“

Updated Nov 30 2014.  By Todd Sharrard.  This is the same process Sharrard Painting uses for the refinishing kitchen cabinet doors.  When refinishing we spray paint our kitchen cabinet doors using airless and conventional HVLP sprayer techniques.  If you decide to undertake a cabinet refinishing project the actual process used for applying the finish to the surfaces may vary, for example a brush and roller could be used, an airless sprayer, a portable turbine based sprayer such a Titan Capspray, or conventional HVLP spray gun could be used but, the overall process remains generally the same. Here is the complete how to paint kitchen cabinets by Sharrard Painting: … Continue reading “How to Paint Kitchen Cabinet Doors“

As an Oakville Painter I often get questions around surface prep and all the great things we can do before we actually open up a can of paint and put the brush to the wall.  Here is my list of 10 critical things you want to do before you start painting. Empty as much as you can out of room.  Working around clutter is no fun and a sure way to spill paint.  All furniture that can be reasonably removed from the room should be.   Moving the furniture to the center of the room is ideal.  Try to maintain a … Continue reading “Interior Painting – Surface Preparation Tips“