The Carpenter Shop

Exotic woods like this walnut mud room bench are possible but expensive. Other than the triple price for the wood right now on decent walnut, the waste is a huge factor on most quotes. The scrap has to be added to the cost of the project because you never know if you will ever do another walnut job or if the wood will have oxidized or if the wood even matches as they cut walnut all over the Eastern and Central part of the U.S.. Most common are red oak and soft maple. Then you can use white oak, cherry, sapele, all of which will have a premium price on the wood and the sheets of plywood/MDF covered in the veneer.

Part two of the showroom tour video. https://youtu.be/xz_67ywbtt0

Starting to post a few videos of my showroom. Here is the first one. https://youtu.be/CrYJeKXHuSU

Once you get tired of looking at plain old paint finishes you might want to think about adding glaze to your next painted cabinet job. Glaze is a mineral spirits based paint, a very thick paint at that, that is basically smeared around exterior parts of a cabinet and then wiped off to provide some color accents. It is a bit more complicated than that. First you paint, sand , paint a 2nd coat, sand again to knock down any raised fibers, then add a coat of clear sanding sea...ler. The sealer does just what its name suggests; it seals off the paint so you can manipulate the glaze without contaminating the paint. Then scuff sand the sealer coat and add your glaze. You can add the glaze sparingly or you can paint the entire part in glaze. Usually it does little good to put the glaze anywhere other than the cracks and crevices areas of the part, usually profiled edges and where the center panel meets the stiles and rails. Why? Because most of the glaze has to be wiped off, leaving a thick layer will just cause problems because the top coat of finish cannot reach the sealer surface under the glaze, your finish will just peel off eventually. You can have a light haze, you can have quite heavy glazed areas that are in protected areas or deep in the grain. Or you can allow the glaze to heavily coat the part, let it dry a few days, then start sanding with sanding sponges for a heavier look. Expensive.... And it looks expensive so there is value there if a project has that kind of budget. Most of the things that look expensive do so because it indicates a lot of time and trouble went into the work, complicated, rich, with obvious quality and the best materials used. Expect to spend around 5% extra on a finish with glaze. So if you purchase $100 worth of cabinets, expect the finish to cost an extra 5% or $5.00 to add the glaze. Generally a simple stain, seal, and pre cat lacquer job will cost 25% or $25.00 per $100 of cabinets. Adding glaze ups that to 30% or $30.00 per $100 of cabinets. But the heavy glaze that is literally painted on and left to dry and sand off? Expect your finishing to start at $5000.00 for a medium sized kitchen as you are doubling, sometimes tripling the time and materials to do the finishing. Then a top coat of pre cat lacquer gives you a durable finish. http://thecarpentershop.net/glaze/

Adjustable Legs/Levelers One of the cool features of are cabinets are the adjustable legs. This consists of a socket on the bottom of the cabinet and a leg that is inserted as part of the installation. This allows you to get the large corner cabinets through a standard 36 doorway and the socket protects the bottom of the cabinet during assembly, finishing, transport, and installation. Once on site the lower leg is tapped into the socket and adjusted to level out the cabi...Continue reading

Is Your Company on Apps like Thumbtack or Houzz? That is a bit old NO! These referral companies like Thumbtack, Yelp, Houzz, Angieslist.com, and Home Advisor are nothing more than scam artists forcing their way between consumers and tradesmen. Their ads sound great, the tradesmen are pre approved and background checked, the reality is that they will allow anyone that will give them access to their bank account to advertise and become one of their trusted tradespeople. Re...Continue reading