October 4, 2025 • 48 mins
In this episode of Home In Progress, sponsored by RepcoLite Paints and Benjamin Moore, host Dan Hansen dives into the smartest, most cost-effective ways to give tired kitchen cabinets a fresh new look. Joining him is Shelly Kuper of Shelly’s Kitchens and Designs, a family business spanning three generations.Together, they unpack the ins and outs of cabinet refinishing and refacing—what the processes involve, how long they take, and what kind of results you can expect. Shelly also shares how her team uses advanced methods like robotic spraying and water-based, low-odor finishes to deliver durable, professional results that stand up to real-world use.From addressing tricky oak grain to choosing colors and hardware, Shelly explains how her team helps homeowners navigate every step of the project. Whether you’re curious about costs, considering a reface, or just want to know if refinishing is the right fit for your space, this episode is packed with insights and practical tips.Resources
Episode Chapters:00:00 Introduction and Overview01:14 Meet Shelly Kuper02:54 From Wallpapering to Kitchen Cabinetry04:21 Step-by-Step Refinishing Process04:58 How Quotes & Estimates Work06:56 Color and Hardware Consultations10:13 In-Home Prep and Painting13:17 Robotic Spraying Explained16:46 Durability Tests (Including the Weed Wacker!)22:43 Client Success Stories25:55 Fast & Efficient Reinstallation29:29 Tackling Oak Grain32:47 The Benefits of Refacing36:53 Custom Modifications & Hardware44:13 How to Get a Quote & Service Area47:29 Wrap-Up & Contact Info
Episode Chapters:00:00 Introduction and Overview01:14 Meet Shelly Kuper02:54 From Wallpapering to Kitchen Cabinetry04:21 Step-by-Step Refinishing Process04:58 How Quotes & Estimates Work06:56 Color and Hardware Consultations10:13 In-Home Prep and Painting13:17 Robotic Spraying Explained16:46 Durability Tests (Including the Weed Wacker!)22:43 Client Success Stories25:55 Fast & Efficient Reinstallation29:29 Tackling Oak Grain32:47 The Benefits of Refacing36:53 Custom Modifications & Hardware44:13 How to Get a Quote & Service Area47:29 Wrap-Up & Contact Info
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everybody, Welcome back to Home in Progress, sponsored by
Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore. Now, if your kitchen cabinets
are dated, dinged, maybe just plain tired, then this episode's
for you. We're gonna be breaking down the two fastest,
most budget friendly paths to a fresh look in the kitchen,
refinishing your cabinets and refacing them. We're going to talk
about what each one costs, how they differ, and how
(00:23):
long you'll actually be living with out doors. I'll walk
you through the process from that first photo based quote
you know that you get online to color and hardware
choices all the way to the final product. Joining me
all through this episode is Shelley Kuiper's from Shelley's Kitchens
and Designs, a three generation team with a dedicated spray booth,
a robotic sprayer, a robotic sprayer pretty cool stuff that
(00:46):
lays down the same film build every single time, and
a low odor water based system that's known for incredible durability.
If you've got an eighties or nineties oak kitchen and
you're wondering what the grain would look like painted, or
if you've just got a tired kitchen and you're wondering
how good it could look, or maybe you're just thinking
about swapping out some hard to reach base cabinets for
deep drawers. If any of that's in your mind, stay tuned.
(01:09):
Shelley's got clear answers and a bunch of great tips.
All right, with all of that in front of us,
let's jump in. Shelley, Thanks for being.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Here, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Now let's start here, you know, before we get into
the actual work and what all of that looks like
and what you guys do, let's just start here. How
long have you been doing kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, stuff
like that, and you know what drew you into this
in the first place.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
We have been doing cabinets as our specialty for about
the last fifteen years. Before that, I mean, I've been
decorating in one way or another for a really long time.
Started out hanging wallpaper Rupcole would give my name out
all the time for wallpaper hanging. Went from that to painting,
and then to doing furniture, and then I my free
(02:00):
labor aka teenage boys.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Yep, how dare they?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
They moved away and furniture was a little heavy to
move myself. But in the meantime I had started getting
a lot of phone calls from people saying, well, if
you can do furniture, why can't you do my kitchen cabinets.
So it was a nice transition. I did not need
strong teenage boys to help me move cabinets and just
really got into that. Ended up purchasing a spray booth
(02:30):
so we could really really do things the right way,
and last year we purchased a robotic spraying system. But
I'm probably jumping ahead of myself.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Then that's fine, we're going to get into all of that.
Oh okay, interesting, I mean it's not well, we'll get
into that often that we run into exactly the setup
that you've got. You've got a pretty unique setup we do.
So you've been doing this for quite a while. I
know that you're in the process. I don't know much
about it. I know you're I think you're in the
process of painting the rain over to your daughter, Yes,
(03:01):
and her husband, right, yes, So what role are you
playing in the business at this point? Are you still
in it?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You know what I love what I do and at
some point I'll walk away. But I mean, I truly
enjoy it. My role right now is I meet with
people and they decide to proceed. I measure for counters
if they want new counters. I help with color selection, hardware,
all of that. I'm a people person. I love it.
(03:33):
So yeah, for right now, I am sticking around. Amanda
and Jason are going to be absolutely fabulous. Jason has
brought a whole new scope of work that we're able
to do that we weren't able to do before. And
they actually have three kids, so the kids help at
(03:57):
the shop as well. They will load things on to
I'm going to call it the conveyor belt for a
robotic spraying system and it goes through there, it's all
magically sprayed, it comes out the other end. So my
fifteen year old granddaughter and thirteen year old grandson are
there helping as well. So we're really three generations working
(04:17):
there right now.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
But really really cool.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, I think so too.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
All right, so let's talk about you know, refinishing. That's
what I want to start with. Okay, refinishing process. And
your site says, your website says, say goodbye to expensive,
inconvenient kitchen remodels. Experience your dream kitchen quickly walk us
through the sequence, you know, day by day if possible,
(04:42):
and I'll kind of lead you through what I'm looking for,
but I want to give people an idea for what
this looks like. You know, that's a pretty pretty big claim.
Experience your dream kitchen quickly, you know, say goodbye to expensive,
inconvenient kitchen remodels. Let's talk about that, and you know,
what does the process look like. Let's start with that
s or quote. You know, how do we start that process?
(05:03):
Gets you out, get a price and all of that.
Is that something that we just send photo? How does
that part work?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I believe in keeping things really, really simple. So what
we have done is we have a very short form
on our website. So Dan, if you wanted your dated
oak cabinets redone, you could get onto our website. You
would fill out that form, name, address, phone number, how
many doors and drawers, and a couple of pictures. Casey
(05:30):
is one of my office ladies. She does all the estimating.
So based on that information that you sent to her,
she gives you a price for redoing your oak doors.
If you were to say, my oak doors have arches
on the top and their raised panel and I really
don't like them, but you like the footprint of your kitchen.
(05:51):
We can also give you a price for doing new
custom made door and drawer fronts that are built locally. Okay,
so when you rec request a price, Casey always gives
a price based on redoing what you have, and then
she will include something that basically says new custom door
and drawer fronts. This is approximately what it would be.
(06:15):
So you can look at that and then say, hmmm,
I really don't like those arches. I really don't like
whatever I would like to pursue this, so we try
to make it really really simple.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
That's that's that part's super simple. I don't even ary
somebody out to the house. How quickly does that?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Casey can usually get somebody a price within twenty four
to forty eight working hours. So if you today is Tuesday,
if you requested a price today, chances are very very
good you would have it before she's done working tomorrow afternoon.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Okay, all right, so super fast. I would have an
idea where we're at. Yep, you mentioned that you get involved,
you know, measuring counters and stuff like that. I'm curious,
does anybody help us with color consultations hardware? You know,
repcol I can help people with that. I'm curious if
you've got people that you use for that. What about
hardware choices things like that? You can help us walk
(07:12):
through some of that.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I'm glad you asked. I am actually the one I'm
going to use you for an example again. So say
you say you know what I'm going to stick with
my oak doors. I have no idea what color to
paint them, and my whole house is oak. Where do
I stop and start? But you do watch cabinets painted.
I come out to your house at that point with
(07:34):
probably one hundred and fifty color samples. We bring those in,
go over those with your current wall color. If you're
keeping your counters, we want to make sure that you
know everything flows nicely. If you were to say I
would like new courts counters, I would come in and
(07:55):
measure those, request a price. Again, when we work with
a local company that does a fabulous you would then
select your counters. I would come back at that point
and help with color selection. When your project is done.
We don't want you to look at that and think,
oh my gosh, my paint for my cabinets does not
(08:16):
match my counter. It just doesn't work. So we really
try hard to make sure that we do things the
right way.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Thing feels coated and organized well.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
And I tell people there's more color options for paint
than there are counters, so let's pick out your counters first.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
We always tell people that too. There's an order doing
these things, and if you follow that order, it really
makes it simpler. It does not always simple, but so
often people will get their paint figured out and then
they go and now they're trying to find a couch,
or they're trying to find carpet, or they're trying to
find a counter And like you said, there's only so
many options available for the countertop or the couch or
(08:55):
the carpet in the style you like or whatever. Paint.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
What is there like fifty five hundred colors just in
the Benjamin Moore line, I.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Don't even there's over three thousand. And that's and that's
just like you said in the line itself, we can
custom match anything. I mean, it's it's unlimited. Yes, So
get some of these these more limited items pick first,
and once you do that, this is up the process.
And that's what you help them help people see, You
would help me see I would, I wasn't already aware. Yes,
(09:26):
I'm in the studio with Shelley Kuiper's from Shelley's Kitchens
and Designs. We're walking our way through kind of what
the process would look like for having her come out
and refinish your kitchen cabinets. We just talked about the
quote process. You know, once we got our color picked out,
Once we got well, once we've looked at the numbers
and we said, hey, this looks pretty good. I want
you out here and we get our color picked out,
(09:50):
you know where do we go from there? You know,
I know you come out. I believe you come out.
You remove the doors and the drawers and stuff like
that that goes to the shop. You know what happens
with what stays in my home. Let's deal with that
part first. Okay, the box itself, how do you get
that painted? Is it just brushed and rolled? Do you spray?
What do you do?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Okay, So you would get an email about a week
before we were going to start from handah, my other
office lady, and she tells you the who, what when?
Not the ware, because we know where the wear is
it's in your kitchen, and what you need to do
to prepare. So you have all of that. We then
set up a time to come out and demo. I
(10:32):
sometimes do that and sometimes Jason comes out and does that.
So that just means basically taking the door and drawer
fronts back to the shop with us so our prep
ladies can work on those there. And I can tell
you how all of that works. But in the home,
it is brushed and rolled. It is the same product.
(10:53):
And I know we're going to get into the product
which is phenomenal. Our painter is phenomenal and the finish
is wonderful. So yes, it is brushed and rolled in
the home.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
What about smell stuff like that. It's just a water
based product, it.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Is, and it's amazing. People are always nervous with a
water based product and oak. I'll just say it how
it is. Yes, this stuff is absolutely fabulous with preventing
any tann and bleed through, any bleed through of any kind,
which is crazy when you think about it, because it's
a water based product, but.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Are water soluble and they're sucked to the surface sometimes
by a water based coating. That's why we talk about
using certain stain blocking primers that will steal those in
generally oak that's varnished. A lot of the times it
can be somewhat sealed, but that real open grain can
really allow those tannons through. And a typical water based
product over top of that as a tendency to sometimes
(11:52):
suck that stain through and it'll get brown. You'll show
brown stain.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Your product is not your typical.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Product, Yours will block its. Talking about that's why that's
such a big deal.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
It really is there. Back in the day when we
were using solvent based stuff, I'd almost feel bad doing it, Like,
especially in the winter, you'd want to open a window
or something because the smell was so bad.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
And that's what it took to block those stains.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It did, but it doesn't anymore, and there's really one
of our primers. I would say, it kind of smells
like spoiled glue. It's not bad, but it's not anything
where you feel like your lungs are shriveling up and dying.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
It is. It is.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
It's low VOCs. It is a water based product. It's amazing,
truly amazing what it is able to do.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
You're using we'll talk about it in a minute, but
you're using Envirolac. We are, all right, and it's a
product we provide you with.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
You do very excited about that, so.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
We'll talk about exactly a little more about that in
a little bit. Okay, so your brush and roll the
boxes that yeah, in my kitchen, low odor. We're not
worried about tann and bleed or anything like that. Even
if we've got oak. You said, the finish looks great.
It's the same product that goes on the cabinet doors. Yes,
so that happens. Let's talk about the doors, you know,
(13:14):
the drawer fronts, the doors themselves. Yes, those are at
your shop. You mentioned the spray booth, you mentioned robots.
I'm absolutely pumped about this idea. I know that I
can promise you what's in my head is probably not
the reality, but I'd love it to be that reality.
But let's talk about that spray booth and robots. What's
(13:36):
going on?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Well, let me talk about my prep ladies first, because
they are phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Well, and we don't want to diss them. Also, let's
don't let's.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
They do talk a lot, and I do have to
laugh about it sometimes because the conversations they have are
quite hilarious. Is it is it a weed whacker or
is it a weed whipper?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I mean these are important questions they need to discuss.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And that's what they'll discuss while they're working.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yes, among other things. So anyways, they do a fabulous
job of prepping things, making sure that they're very very clean,
very much ready to go, because if it's not prepped right,
it's not going to hold up.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Well.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
From there it goes to our robotics.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Let's just hit pause for a second, okay, and you
can say that line one more time. If it's not prepped.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, if it's not prepped well, it's the finish is
not going to hold up.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I know. It's something that I think a lot of
people they can buy into that concept to some extent.
But you work with this all the time, you know,
because I talk about it all the time on the show.
You know, a lot of the time in a project,
almost eighty five to ninety percent of the work time
is often.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Our biggest expense is our prep ladies. Yeah, because if
it is not done right, it's not going to hold up.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
It's just not doesn't right. It's the foundation for everything
that you're setting and even and if it doesn't hold up.
You know, it's not just oh, scrape it a little
bit and reef and fix it. If the prep is poor,
depending on how bad it is, you can have a
monumental struggle to get back to a good foundation and
get it cleaned up and ready to go again.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
That is kind of a whole another story. I can
tell you with all absolute certainty, our prep is never
done incorrectly. These ladies do not let anything slip past them.
I mean, they're very, very detailed in what they're doing.
We have had numerous clients that have reached out and
said so and so did my cabinets for me? And
(15:42):
the paint is chipping. It's only been a year. What
can you do at that point? A lot of times
it's past the point of even being able to fix it.
I mean, how do you strip an oak door with
a raised panel and get all of that off so
you're back to where you started and then be able
to do it the right way? It is not worth
(16:02):
it to cut corners, and we just don't cut corners.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So that's that's really good info, and that's info that everybody,
whether you're going to hire Shelley to come out and
do your cabinets. Just take that info. You know it's
coming from somebody other than me. Now, yes, selling you anything, Shelley,
You're not selling them anything. You're just telling them take
the time to prep. I know. It's no fun because preppiness.
And that's why they talk about we'd we'd whackers versus
(16:26):
weed whippers.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
That is exactly why there's a bird feeder on the
window so they can watch the bird. I mean, they're
honestly quite hilarious listening to them. It is not an
exciting job. Spend your life prep Well, they're special, all right,
So do.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
The prep work. You guys do the papwork really well.
They do a great job. Yes, once it's all prepped,
now it hits the spray booth and then the robots
get involved.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yes, so, Amanda, my daughter had been spraying everything manually
and it basically was wrecking her shoulder. She was in
once a week for a massage to try to regain
feeling in it. I mean, as young as she is,
you don't want a wrecked shoulder that young. So we
chose to invest in a robotic spring system. I will
(17:13):
say I do think I had heart failure after we
signed the papers and realized I had just signed my
life away with what it costs. However, it is magical.
It is just I mean, I'm smiling as I think
about it. It has been a game changer. So it
I call it an on ramp. You have an on
(17:34):
ramp on one end, and then it goes into the
actual spraying portion of it. It's got one i'm going
to call it head that moves back and forth across it,
and on that one head there's four different sprayers, so
it is hitting every little itty bitty thing. I think.
As it goes into the actual spraying part, there's like
(17:56):
a thousand little eyes that see it and say, oh,
this door is twenty six and a quarter by thirty
one and a half. So it sprays what it needs
to spray. It's just not spraying like creepy all over it. Nope,
not at all.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
So you've got a video on the website. I watched
that amazing. I heard about the robots yep, and of
course what I want is like the humanoid robot that
talks to you and moves around and brings you coffee
while it's sprains stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
That would be nice.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Not quite that, but it is like you said it
almost looks like a printer head in a.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Way or something really does and what.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
I noticed in that video, And I'll put a link
in the show notes and we'll give out your website
and stuff so people can check this out later. But
the overspray there isn't well, there's overspray, but it's not
just randomly sprayed.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
It really isn't.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
So you're saving and conserving product. Yes, and it's really
really laser focused it is.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah. So yeah, after it's done spraying, it comes out
on the other end, we put it on a rolling rack,
put it in our spray booth slash industrial size oven.
We don't spray in it anymore for the most part.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
We mainly just that big spray booth.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yes, but now we put it in there and we
set it for one hundred and fifty degrees, leave it
in there for thirty to sixty minutes, take it back out.
We can flip it over and do the other side.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
So you're baking it innocence. Is that just to speed
the dry time up? Is there other benefits to what
you're doing.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
More than anything else that speeds the dry time up?
I mean, it probably makes the finish harder. But and
I know we'll get to this. The product that we use,
we add hardener to it anyway, So considered a two
case system. It's the product and the harder mixed together.
But yeah, it does dry it faster. It allows us
(19:47):
a quicker turnaround time with things.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Now you've got I'm assuming, I mean, of course in
that scenario, great consistency. You know you've got dust control, yes, right,
because I know that is something we run into homeowners
when we're doing cabinets. I did my cabinets, sprayed them
in my basement once, you know, a long time ago,
and that looked great. But dust control, yes, I used
(20:10):
an oil based product one year and or one time
that I did them, and I did them all outside.
That was really great, except for I did it in
early falls, so I was getting a little bit of
o oh no, did not even think about that ahead
of time.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Well, it dry so slow when you have an oil
based product.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Little leaves and then sometimes little bugs and things. It
was really annoying. That's not even normal problems. But you're
way beyond that. You're not having any of that. So
the finish has got to be immaculate when it comes off.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I will say with this product that we use in
the owner of the company's stuff, I cannot say enough
good about him. He has been phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
That's the owner of Envirolact. Okay, yeah, so let's talk
about that. You said it's a two K product. That
means there's two parts. Yes, it's hardener with it.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Let me back up just to hear if I may
you ask about the finish that comes out of the
robotic spiring system. Amanda was phenomenal with spraying. I mean
she had been doing it for years. Thus the wrecked
shoulder with our robotic spiring system. Steph came out. He
helped us at the show that we went to in
(21:19):
Atlanta figure out which one was going to be the
best for us, and then once it was set up,
he and one of his other guys came out spend
the day, spent the day out there and helped us
fine tune it and calibrate it for using in Virolac.
The finish that we get from that is so insanely good.
(21:40):
You want five wet mills. When it is put on
and it's a robot, it is always, without fail, every
single solitary time. Five mills a person, regardless of how
good they are, and Amanda was phenomenal. They can't do that,
They just played can't. I mean you get tired, your
(22:02):
arm SAgs, you get hot, you get crabby. Whatever. The
robot does not mouth off. It doesn't get crabby and
say I'm done working, It doesn't get hot. It just
does its thing. And it is consistent five mili every
single solitary time. So it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
So beautiful finish.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
It's unbeatable. It really is very very cool.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
You love the product. Is there anything else? I know
you've got videos on your website where you're taking nail
polish remover. You mightpen that on a door. You even
use a weed whipper or a weed whacker. We're still
not sure.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
No, it's a weed whacker.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Okay, we've decided. I have Okay, you've decided, and you
use that on a sample door.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Well, I'm supposed to tell you this, Okay. Jason, my
son in law, said, I have to tell people. It
was not a pansy plugin weed whacker. It was a
man's weed whacker. It's gas powered.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Okay, so he was using a man's.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
A man's weed waad whacker.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yes to hit this cabinet door. What are you demonstrated?
I mean, I know what you're but people haven't seen that.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Just how durable it is.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
It's what did you get because at first it looked
scarred up a little bit and then you wiped it
with a rag or something that came all off it did.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
It was dusty. The weed whacker was dusty from being
used on action used. Yeah, of course it does.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
All he did was took a rag and wiped it down.
It was fine. We do the home show in Grand Rapids.
We do the one in January and then the home
and Garden in February, March whenever it is. And yes,
we have a little sample door there and my granddaughter
cause again family business. Hm, my granddaughter is making hot
(23:46):
pink hearts on it with nail polish and we have
nail polish remover there and cotton balls for people to
come by and remove the finish.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Because normally nail nail polish removers gonna oh it will
really damage a finish.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Waters do anything nothing on this, No, And we did
the drawer front our sample drawer front in navy blue
on purpose because if you use a cotton ball with
nail polish remover on it, and it takes some of
the finish off. If it was a white door, you
won't see it. I see it on those, but if
it's navy blue you will. I have that same little
(24:24):
drawer front that I still carry around with me. It
might have a few symodges of nail polish remover on
it yet, but aside from that, I show it to clients,
they would never know that we used it for two
weekends and did this to it. Now, I want to
tell you another story really quick, if I may. We
did a project for a client like a year ago.
She had dark gray cabinets that we did, and she
(24:47):
reached out and said that she had a can of
yellow Sperry paint explode in her kitchen. She sent me
some pictures and she just said, I don't know what
I'm supposed to do. I think I'm going to need
to have you redo them. And I said, all joking aside,
try a nail polish remover. If it doesn't work, we
haven't lost anything. We still have to redo them. And
she emailed me back a few days later and she
(25:09):
said the nail polish remover didn't work, but I did
use straight acetone on it. The I know the the
yellow spray paint is off and my cabinets look great.
Thank you, And all I said was awesome. Would you
leave a review for us?
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I tried posting the picture on Google. It wouldn't let
me because the can in the background said acetone And
apparently Google did not like a can that said acetone.
But who can do that with it? If that's a
finished product and we never had to do anything, redo anything.
All the yellow is gone. We have the pictures so
(25:46):
pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
That's that's an amazing product. That's it. It is producked.
So I guess we got everything painted and all of that.
I'm curious about you know, the you come back, you
reinstall everything right, Yes, now we got a finished kitchen.
Once we've gotten to that point, like, what time has passed?
What time has transpired? How long does this normally take?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
If we were going to redoce somebody's current cabinets and
they you Dan said yes, please, let's do this. We
generally start on a Monday, just simply by taking the
doors and drawers down, we're in the house. Depending on
the size of the project, an hour, an hour and
a half Liza then paints, most likely that same week.
(26:31):
She is freaky fast and absolutely amazing. I don't know
how she does it, but she does. And we get
more compliments on Lizza than anybody else. So she does
a fabulous job. So depending on the size of the project,
she might be in your home a day. She might
be in your home three days the following week Wednesday, Thursday,
or Friday. We come back and we put things back together.
(26:55):
If you have done new doors, because we do with
the custom made door and drawer fronts or new counters,
we start a little further in advance. Your home really
isn't torn up. We're just getting in, getting measurements, getting
things going. Really the only time your home is torn apart,
(27:15):
and I like air quote on that because it's still
so usable. Sure, it's Monday from one week to Wednesday,
Thursday or Friday the following week, so.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
A couple weeks ish, but it's still usable, still usable.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
The cabinets we ask that they be emptied before Liza
comes to paint, just to make sure we don't get
anything on anything. But aside from that, your kitchen is usable.
When somebody sprays in the home, basically they're putting a
hazmat suit on the kitchen, and your kitchen probably is
not going to be usable for three to five days,
(27:51):
and it costs more quite honestly, because it takes more time,
takes more product. The way we do it, it's there's
an no dust, there's no anything in the house, there's
really no smell, and the kitchen is very usable. Even
when people do new counters. The company that we work with,
they come in on the day that they're scheduled to
(28:15):
install the new, they remove the old, they put the
new in. We come back the next day, we hook
up the plumbing. Just because of all the things that
we are able to do in the contractors that we
have access to, it's just a very smooth process and
there's very little downtime for you being able to use
(28:36):
your kitchen in the process of this.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
That sounds really good because even if I do it myself,
you know, it does take you know, that kind of time.
You know, people still run into a week's worth of work,
maybe longer, and then you've got all of these things
all over your home. That was always the struggle I
ran into is yeah, kitchen, cabinet doors. You don't realize
how much space that takes up when you start laying
(28:59):
them flat all over the place. Yeah, you know, drying
racks can help. You've got drying racks. I'm sure that
rolling ones to minimize the footprint. But when you're doing
them yourselves, you're still out a lot of time that
you can't use the kitchen exactly the way you always did.
Like you said, you still can use it to some extent.
(29:20):
You still got all these things somewhere. My basement was
full of them. It can be inconvenient. It's still inconvenient.
Two weeks isn't too bad to wait through that. I
want to get to refacing. But before I do that,
real quick, you keep You've mentioned a couple of times,
you know, either by guests or maybe we've talked about it.
But my eighties Oak kitchen, my nineties Oak kitchen cabinets,
(29:43):
that is what I've got a lot of us have those.
I'm curious about the graining, you know, how does the
grain look in the end. Do you fill the grain
do you just let it go? Because sometimes that really
poorous grain. When you put a normal coating on that,
sometimes you can still see some of that, and people
get concerned. They always ask about it, so I'm asking
(30:05):
you for them.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yes, oak is oak. There is grain. We've had people
say I thought you would sand it, and I said
we did and it was still oak.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
There there is a sand it down.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I know, there's really no way around it. What we
do is one of the Envirolact primers that we use is,
let me say it like this, an average primer is
going to be nineteen percent solid. So basically, once everything
(30:40):
is evaporated, nineteen percent of that gallon was solid and viralac.
I think it's forty nine or fifty one percent, so
there's a lot more that stays on it. And the
one seventy in Virolac primer is the primer that we
use when we do oak. We do do too. It's
a primer on it. There is always still going to
(31:03):
be grain. And some of these products that they say
that you can use that will fill it, we have
never really found that it one hundred percent fills it.
What we do is after it's been prime twice. If
my prep ladies look at that and say this would
not fly in my house. Sometimes the oak grain looks
like a meat tenderizer has been used on it. We
(31:26):
will take bondo and fill some of that, but we
don't ever fill all of it. Sure, I tell people,
you will still see the texture. There is no way
around it. There is no color variation. If you're doing
Benjamin More white dove, it is all Benjamin More white dove.
But you still see that texture. There's no way around it.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
And to make it make sure everybody's tracking with exactly
what you're saying. When you look at your oak cabinet
doors now and you see that oak grain and all
of that, it's a lot of that. I mean, you
see the texture, so you see a color variation where
really dark in the grain and the harder wood is
going to be you know, a little bit lighter in
color with that stain. So you see a lot of
(32:09):
that variation. And it really jumps out at you. Once
it's solid coated and it's one color, a lot of that.
It doesn't go away like it's gone, but it visually
almost disappears it it's camouflaged. It is because I notice
when I get a lot of you know, a white
or a whatever color on oak cabinets, Yes, if you
(32:30):
tilt them and look and really dig into it, you're
going to see that that graining, it's not going to
go awigh, But when you stand back and look at
your kitchen, it's going to it's going to look great.
Whatever color you picked, you're not going to see that
grain jumping out at you like you did when it
was stained. Yes, I agree, So all right, let's talk
about refacing because that's a little different process. What exactly
(32:53):
is it and when is this a really great option?
When would somebody want to jump in and do this.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
First of all, I'm going to say a lot of
people don't understand what refacing is, so I try to
look at this from their perspective. I just had a
gentleman stop in yesterday and we were talking and I said, well,
here's the refacing part, and he goes, what's refacing? So
if you have I'm going to use oak. Again, not
(33:20):
trying to hate on oak, but just always make such
a good example. You have oak doors, they are not
full overlay, so they're just barely covering the opening. You
have a lot of the cabinet box portion that's exposed.
You've got raised panels, and you have arches, but you
like the footprint. This is always my question for people,
(33:42):
especially when we do the show if people like their
footprint of their kitchen and that is going to stay
like it is, and they just really don't care for
the dated style of the doors and drawers, they might
have exposed hinges. That is when getting new door and
drawer fronts made could be a great option. We work
(34:06):
with a local company. They are phenomenal. There's a lot
of different options for the styles of doors that you
can get, but it really gives you a chance to
have a truly truly updated look because when we do this,
we have a very full overlay. There is a tiny
(34:27):
little bit of clearance between the doors and drawers, so
you really don't see a whole lot of the housing portion.
Most people go with some version of a shaker style.
You now have hidden soft closing hinges. It's just a
really good way to update it. And I know the
question always is, yeah, but my boxes are oak, so
(34:51):
what about those? Because the faces of them with the
new door and drawer fronts are pretty much covered, you
really do. I don't see that any end caps that
are visible. If we prime those ones and we can
see that oak grain is super super heavy, we will
(35:13):
do like a quick skim coat of something on that
sand it and prime.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
It again just to minimize that gus.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Yes, but it's I'm going to guess if you were
going to reface your kitchen with the new custom door
and drawer fronts, new courts counters have it painted average
size kitchen and this is just really off the top
(35:42):
of my head, I'm going to say maybe thirteen fourteen
thousand dollars if you gutted that kitchen and replaced it
with the same footprint, you're probably looking at forty five
thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
So huge savings compared.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, and when you think about it, now, all of
your cabinets are removed, your counters are gone. How long
is your house torn up? Do you have to do
new floors? Now? What if you have newer counters and
you don't want to replace your counters, But if you
got it, you have to replace your counters. They can't
reuse them. This is such a cost effective way to
(36:22):
do things, and the finish that we are able to
produce legitimately is better than a factory finish. I live
in a condo that is our condo areas five six
years old, some of the newer ones maybe four years old.
I have friends that have chips in their brand new
cabinets already. I don't have chips in mine because I
(36:44):
used in Virolac on it. So why not, I guess
that would be my question? Why not do it that way?
We can make modifications. If somebody has an island and
they want it bigger, he's.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Going to ask that you can adjust that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Sure can. Yeah, we have a contractor that we really
really like. We have made a point of surrounding ourselves
with great people.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Yeah. It works really really well. You don't have to
have them on staff. Yeah, but there you've got a
great network of experts that you can reach out to.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
We do, and I don't think we are any better
than the people that we refer. So the people the
gentleman that we refer for modifications were very confident that
he's doing a great job for our clients. He's treating
them well, his prices are fair, et cetera. So yeah,
we can make modifications. We can do that.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
So if I don't have a dishwasher, but I want one, and.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
There's a bank of cabinets that can come out. Usually, Yes,
we did that for a gentleman in Kalamazoo. He's seventy
and he said he did not want dishpan hands, he
needed a dishwasher.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
We put a dishwasher in for him. If people have
cabinets over their stove and they want a trendy hoodvent instead,
we can do that all. Not we, but our contractor
that we refer. Sure, So, yes, we can do these things.
We can make these modifications. In my own condo, I
(38:20):
had two banks of cabinets that had a drawer and
two doors below. And at fifty nine years old, I'm
not in the mood to get on my hands and
knees and crawl into the back of that.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
And let's spend so much time on my hands and
knees pawn around trying to whatever I need in there.
And I was going to ask this question, you can
turn those into drawers. Is that what we did?
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Yep, Even in my own condo we did. It is magical.
I have I have leftover space, so everything that came
out of those cabinets is now in those drawers, and
the drawers are not totally full.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Yeah, I would imagine, and that I'm thinking that through now.
I wouldn't just it wouldn't be an even swap. I
would gain space. Yeah, there's a lot of air, a
lot of yeah, and space in my cupboards that aren't
getting it's not getting used. Yeah, there's in a drawer.
I can pack those babies full.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
And you can pull those babies out and get to
what you need to without getting on your hands and knees.
That is a win win.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
That is a win win. And I'm so short that yeah,
I won't even have to bend over. It's right there. Okay,
So all kinds of different things. You answered a bunch
of other questions that I had at the end. Here countertops,
you can help me with that, all kinds of different materials.
I mean you just you've got people you work with, right.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yes, we work with a local company for that. We
can do courts granted, Dolomite court site, all the goods.
Wonderful people that we work with do a great job.
So yes, we can do that, all right. And you
would ask about hardware at one point, and I did
not answer that question. When I come to somebody's home
(40:01):
to help with color selection, I have lots and lots
of hardware samples with me, so I can help people
with that.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
I owe that for a minute, just because That's another
one of my little things that I've I've talked about.
I love to talk about from time to time because
I did. I painted in my kitchen cabinets. I told
you about that. I sprayed them all, you know, these
long long ago. Now I got oak again in a
new house and I don't know, waiting for it to
come back in. But anyways, painted all these cabinets white. Yeah,
abyss kind of a color. It looked great. I was
(40:29):
so happy. And because I was cheap, I put the
old hardware back on because it was all right, you know,
it was all right and they look good. But then
like a year later, I decided, okay, it's time to
get rid of that brass that I run on and
I got something that was more modern at the time.
And I was stunned at how expensive it was. You know,
(40:52):
all cards on the table here. It's unfately to get
all of that. And I was really bummed because I'm
really cheap, like I said, But I got them on
and it was one of those jobs where when I
painted my cabinets the year before, you know, I would
just sit in the kitchen and look at them because
it was such.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
A big test and how good you did.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Right when I put just the hardware on, I spent
almost as much time staring at the cabinets because it
looked brand new again. Yeah, it is amazing, long winded
story to get to the point. Hardware makes a tremendous.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Difference at one hundred percent does well. How I like
doing hardware, and I tell our clients this, but I
always tell them as well, your house, your rules. More
often than not they'll just say, you just tell me
what you would do, you know, make all your notes,
and then tell me. I like hardware that is very
(41:45):
proportionately sized. So we're doing a project for a client.
She's got an island, has four drawers, four doors, and
we're going to have six very large drawers, which she's
very excited about. The drawers are going to be about
thirty eight inches wide. When I help her select hardware,
I'll suggest twelve inch handles because it really really makes
(42:08):
a pop. I like mixing knobs and different size handles
for me. When I help somebody figure stuff out for hardware,
I will usually have four different sizes because a really
small door, really small doors over the microwave or the
refrigerator might have a knob, or it might have a
(42:30):
three and three quarter inch handle a pantry door. For me,
putting a knob on there says to me, I ran
out of money and all I could afford was a knob.
But if you've got house, if you've got a five
foot pantry door or four foot, then put something like
eight and three quarter inch handle on it. It looks
so sharp when you're not scared to do that. They're
(42:54):
all the same handles, they're just different sizes, and I
have yet for somebody to say to me that just
looks weird. The husband usually will be like, hmm, okay,
so how many sizes are we doing? And when it's done,
they will stand back and go, you are right, to
which I reply, I know, because you're so humble sometimes.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
But that's good.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
I know what looks really really good, and I'm never
going to force that on anybody. But they're happy with
it when it's done.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
That's really helpful because it isn't something that we do
a lot. That's not a thought process that probably for sure,
it's not a thought process that everybody out there thinks about.
I never thought about that. I would have just bought
the same sizes and I would have moved through, and
I probably I might not have even known that it
looked weird.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
You would probably think it looked fine, yes, until it
would be done the Shelly way.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
And then I would realize what I had missed out
on you.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Right now, I'm not sounding humble at all, but you
probably would have looked at that then and went, oh, okay,
I get it. Yeah, because it truly does make a difference.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
So you'll help people with all of that. Yes, yeah,
So Shelley Kuiper's from Shelley's Kitchen in Design. Let's give
out your information if anybody's interested. I think you made
a good case for why they might want to get
a quote. Let's talk about that. First. They get the
quote by.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Going going to our website, which is Shelley's Kitchens, and
there's a link right up there that says get free
quote here. I tell people it'll take you all of
maybe three minutes to do it. It's that simple.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
And then you thought, within twenty four to forty eight
hours they've quote, they've got all of that information. What's
the service area that you'll cover.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Right now? I mean we are located in Jennison. We
do really anything around here. We've done lots of projects.
In South Haven, we have done a number of projects
Kalamazoo Shortage area, I mean Cascade eight at Tons. There
is one area in eight To. When I looked it up,
it was like one of those courts there was the
(45:08):
north in the south. There's ten houses on it, and
I think we've done eight of them. Ok.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Yeah. I were talking to some decorators in Traverse City
because it's been requested more than once that we have
a presence up there. But I mean, yeah, really the
West Michigan area we cover that we've done. I figured
it out the other day with little help from chat GPT.
I put some stuff in there and I said, help
me figure out how many jobs we've done in fifteen years.
(45:37):
And I'm thinking we've done roughly thirty six hundred kitchens.
Oh man, Yeah, team of seventeen right now, and we
do an average of four projects a week.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
All right, Well, if you want your kitchen to be
one of those projects, reach out probably from what I'm here,
and the best way to reach out is to start
with that quote, right, So that's on your website.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
And I do call each person and that requests the
price a few days later and just ask what questions
they have that I can answer. People do and sometimes
they're intimidated to reach out. And I enjoy chatting with people.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
So I think you'd make it really easy and just
a lot of different You know, an entire package is
what you're presenting here, everything from helping with the color
to getting a product that like you explained that story
where the spray paint, Yeah, and a spray paint blew
up and they were able to wash it off with
ace tone. Oh my goodness, that's insanity. It really is
(46:33):
still look good. So a great product. Helping with color,
helping with hardware, you can connect people to know experts
who get countertops installed, make minor modifications to the kitchen,
all kinds of different things all in one package. So yeah,
what's that website? One more time?
Speaker 2 (46:51):
It is Shelley so s H E L L Y
S kitchens dot com.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
All right, I'll put links to all of that in
the show notes. You do kit you also do bathroom cabinets, right.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
We really specialize in cabinets, So anything cabinet related, yes,
we do that. We have people we can refer for walls,
but our niche specifically is cabinets of any sort perfect.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
So if you've got any cabinets and you want to
at least get a quote, just get an idea. Yes,
if Shelley sold you on her system, her product, and
all of that reach out, I'll put links in the
show notes. Shelley, thanks for being here, thank you for
having me, and that's going to do it for this
episode of Home in Progress, I want to thank Shelley
Kiper's from Shelley's Kitchens and Designs for joining me and
for sharing not just you know the technical side of
(47:38):
refinishing and refacing, but also the heart of a three
generation family business. Now, if you've been wondering whether or
not your dated oak kitchen can be saved, or if
refacing might be a smarter path than a full remodel,
go see what Shelley's team is doing at Shelley's Kitchens
dot com. I'll drop all the links in the show notes,
including a direct link to their free quote form. Now,
as always, this podcast is brought to you by Repcolli
(48:00):
Paints and Benjamin Moore. And if you enjoyed today's episode,
make sure that you follow or subscribe to Home in
Progress wherever you get your podcasts, and that way you'll
never miss an episode. All right, have a great week everybody,
and i'll see you next time. I'm Dan Hansen. Thanks
for listening.
Hey, everybody, Welcome back to Home in Progress, sponsored by
Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore. Now, if your kitchen cabinets
are dated, dinged, maybe just plain tired, then this episode's
for you. We're gonna be breaking down the two fastest,
most budget friendly paths to a fresh look in the kitchen,
refinishing your cabinets and refacing them. We're going to talk
about what each one costs, how they differ, and how
(00:23):
long you'll actually be living with out doors. I'll walk
you through the process from that first photo based quote
you know that you get online to color and hardware
choices all the way to the final product. Joining me
all through this episode is Shelley Kuiper's from Shelley's Kitchens
and Designs, a three generation team with a dedicated spray booth,
a robotic sprayer, a robotic sprayer pretty cool stuff that
(00:46):
lays down the same film build every single time, and
a low odor water based system that's known for incredible durability.
If you've got an eighties or nineties oak kitchen and
you're wondering what the grain would look like painted, or
if you've just got a tired kitchen and you're wondering
how good it could look, or maybe you're just thinking
about swapping out some hard to reach base cabinets for
deep drawers. If any of that's in your mind, stay tuned.
(01:09):
Shelley's got clear answers and a bunch of great tips.
All right, with all of that in front of us,
let's jump in. Shelley, Thanks for being.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Here, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Now let's start here, you know, before we get into
the actual work and what all of that looks like
and what you guys do, let's just start here. How
long have you been doing kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, stuff
like that, and you know what drew you into this
in the first place.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
We have been doing cabinets as our specialty for about
the last fifteen years. Before that, I mean, I've been
decorating in one way or another for a really long time.
Started out hanging wallpaper Rupcole would give my name out
all the time for wallpaper hanging. Went from that to painting,
and then to doing furniture, and then I my free
(02:00):
labor aka teenage boys.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Yep, how dare they?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
They moved away and furniture was a little heavy to
move myself. But in the meantime I had started getting
a lot of phone calls from people saying, well, if
you can do furniture, why can't you do my kitchen cabinets.
So it was a nice transition. I did not need
strong teenage boys to help me move cabinets and just
really got into that. Ended up purchasing a spray booth
(02:30):
so we could really really do things the right way,
and last year we purchased a robotic spraying system. But
I'm probably jumping ahead of myself.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Then that's fine, we're going to get into all of that.
Oh okay, interesting, I mean it's not well, we'll get
into that often that we run into exactly the setup
that you've got. You've got a pretty unique setup we do.
So you've been doing this for quite a while. I
know that you're in the process. I don't know much
about it. I know you're I think you're in the
process of painting the rain over to your daughter, Yes,
(03:01):
and her husband, right, yes, So what role are you
playing in the business at this point? Are you still
in it?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You know what I love what I do and at
some point I'll walk away. But I mean, I truly
enjoy it. My role right now is I meet with
people and they decide to proceed. I measure for counters
if they want new counters. I help with color selection, hardware,
all of that. I'm a people person. I love it.
(03:33):
So yeah, for right now, I am sticking around. Amanda
and Jason are going to be absolutely fabulous. Jason has
brought a whole new scope of work that we're able
to do that we weren't able to do before. And
they actually have three kids, so the kids help at
(03:57):
the shop as well. They will load things on to
I'm going to call it the conveyor belt for a
robotic spraying system and it goes through there, it's all
magically sprayed, it comes out the other end. So my
fifteen year old granddaughter and thirteen year old grandson are
there helping as well. So we're really three generations working
(04:17):
there right now.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
But really really cool.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, I think so too.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
All right, so let's talk about you know, refinishing. That's
what I want to start with. Okay, refinishing process. And
your site says, your website says, say goodbye to expensive,
inconvenient kitchen remodels. Experience your dream kitchen quickly walk us
through the sequence, you know, day by day if possible,
(04:42):
and I'll kind of lead you through what I'm looking for,
but I want to give people an idea for what
this looks like. You know, that's a pretty pretty big claim.
Experience your dream kitchen quickly, you know, say goodbye to expensive,
inconvenient kitchen remodels. Let's talk about that, and you know,
what does the process look like. Let's start with that
s or quote. You know, how do we start that process?
(05:03):
Gets you out, get a price and all of that.
Is that something that we just send photo? How does
that part work?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I believe in keeping things really, really simple. So what
we have done is we have a very short form
on our website. So Dan, if you wanted your dated
oak cabinets redone, you could get onto our website. You
would fill out that form, name, address, phone number, how
many doors and drawers, and a couple of pictures. Casey
(05:30):
is one of my office ladies. She does all the estimating.
So based on that information that you sent to her,
she gives you a price for redoing your oak doors.
If you were to say, my oak doors have arches
on the top and their raised panel and I really
don't like them, but you like the footprint of your kitchen.
(05:51):
We can also give you a price for doing new
custom made door and drawer fronts that are built locally. Okay,
so when you rec request a price, Casey always gives
a price based on redoing what you have, and then
she will include something that basically says new custom door
and drawer fronts. This is approximately what it would be.
(06:15):
So you can look at that and then say, hmmm,
I really don't like those arches. I really don't like
whatever I would like to pursue this, so we try
to make it really really simple.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
That's that's that part's super simple. I don't even ary
somebody out to the house. How quickly does that?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Casey can usually get somebody a price within twenty four
to forty eight working hours. So if you today is Tuesday,
if you requested a price today, chances are very very
good you would have it before she's done working tomorrow afternoon.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Okay, all right, so super fast. I would have an
idea where we're at. Yep, you mentioned that you get involved,
you know, measuring counters and stuff like that. I'm curious,
does anybody help us with color consultations hardware? You know,
repcol I can help people with that. I'm curious if
you've got people that you use for that. What about
hardware choices things like that? You can help us walk
(07:12):
through some of that.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I'm glad you asked. I am actually the one I'm
going to use you for an example again. So say
you say you know what I'm going to stick with
my oak doors. I have no idea what color to
paint them, and my whole house is oak. Where do
I stop and start? But you do watch cabinets painted.
I come out to your house at that point with
(07:34):
probably one hundred and fifty color samples. We bring those in,
go over those with your current wall color. If you're
keeping your counters, we want to make sure that you
know everything flows nicely. If you were to say I
would like new courts counters, I would come in and
(07:55):
measure those, request a price. Again, when we work with
a local company that does a fabulous you would then
select your counters. I would come back at that point
and help with color selection. When your project is done.
We don't want you to look at that and think,
oh my gosh, my paint for my cabinets does not
(08:16):
match my counter. It just doesn't work. So we really
try hard to make sure that we do things the
right way.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Thing feels coated and organized well.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
And I tell people there's more color options for paint
than there are counters, so let's pick out your counters first.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
We always tell people that too. There's an order doing
these things, and if you follow that order, it really
makes it simpler. It does not always simple, but so
often people will get their paint figured out and then
they go and now they're trying to find a couch,
or they're trying to find carpet, or they're trying to
find a counter And like you said, there's only so
many options available for the countertop or the couch or
(08:55):
the carpet in the style you like or whatever. Paint.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
What is there like fifty five hundred colors just in
the Benjamin Moore line, I.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Don't even there's over three thousand. And that's and that's
just like you said in the line itself, we can
custom match anything. I mean, it's it's unlimited. Yes, So
get some of these these more limited items pick first,
and once you do that, this is up the process.
And that's what you help them help people see, You
would help me see I would, I wasn't already aware. Yes,
(09:26):
I'm in the studio with Shelley Kuiper's from Shelley's Kitchens
and Designs. We're walking our way through kind of what
the process would look like for having her come out
and refinish your kitchen cabinets. We just talked about the
quote process. You know, once we got our color picked out,
Once we got well, once we've looked at the numbers
and we said, hey, this looks pretty good. I want
you out here and we get our color picked out,
(09:50):
you know where do we go from there? You know,
I know you come out. I believe you come out.
You remove the doors and the drawers and stuff like
that that goes to the shop. You know what happens
with what stays in my home. Let's deal with that
part first. Okay, the box itself, how do you get
that painted? Is it just brushed and rolled? Do you spray?
What do you do?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Okay, So you would get an email about a week
before we were going to start from handah, my other
office lady, and she tells you the who, what when?
Not the ware, because we know where the wear is
it's in your kitchen, and what you need to do
to prepare. So you have all of that. We then
set up a time to come out and demo. I
(10:32):
sometimes do that and sometimes Jason comes out and does that.
So that just means basically taking the door and drawer
fronts back to the shop with us so our prep
ladies can work on those there. And I can tell
you how all of that works. But in the home,
it is brushed and rolled. It is the same product.
(10:53):
And I know we're going to get into the product
which is phenomenal. Our painter is phenomenal and the finish
is wonderful. So yes, it is brushed and rolled in
the home.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
What about smell stuff like that. It's just a water
based product, it.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Is, and it's amazing. People are always nervous with a
water based product and oak. I'll just say it how
it is. Yes, this stuff is absolutely fabulous with preventing
any tann and bleed through, any bleed through of any kind,
which is crazy when you think about it, because it's
a water based product, but.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Are water soluble and they're sucked to the surface sometimes
by a water based coating. That's why we talk about
using certain stain blocking primers that will steal those in
generally oak that's varnished. A lot of the times it
can be somewhat sealed, but that real open grain can
really allow those tannons through. And a typical water based
product over top of that as a tendency to sometimes
(11:52):
suck that stain through and it'll get brown. You'll show
brown stain.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Your product is not your typical.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Product, Yours will block its. Talking about that's why that's
such a big deal.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
It really is there. Back in the day when we
were using solvent based stuff, I'd almost feel bad doing it, Like,
especially in the winter, you'd want to open a window
or something because the smell was so bad.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
And that's what it took to block those stains.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It did, but it doesn't anymore, and there's really one
of our primers. I would say, it kind of smells
like spoiled glue. It's not bad, but it's not anything
where you feel like your lungs are shriveling up and dying.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
It is. It is.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
It's low VOCs. It is a water based product. It's amazing,
truly amazing what it is able to do.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
You're using we'll talk about it in a minute, but
you're using Envirolac. We are, all right, and it's a
product we provide you with.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
You do very excited about that, so.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
We'll talk about exactly a little more about that in
a little bit. Okay, so your brush and roll the
boxes that yeah, in my kitchen, low odor. We're not
worried about tann and bleed or anything like that. Even
if we've got oak. You said, the finish looks great.
It's the same product that goes on the cabinet doors. Yes,
so that happens. Let's talk about the doors, you know,
(13:14):
the drawer fronts, the doors themselves. Yes, those are at
your shop. You mentioned the spray booth, you mentioned robots.
I'm absolutely pumped about this idea. I know that I
can promise you what's in my head is probably not
the reality, but I'd love it to be that reality.
But let's talk about that spray booth and robots. What's
(13:36):
going on?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Well, let me talk about my prep ladies first, because
they are phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Well, and we don't want to diss them. Also, let's
don't let's.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
They do talk a lot, and I do have to
laugh about it sometimes because the conversations they have are
quite hilarious. Is it is it a weed whacker or
is it a weed whipper?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I mean these are important questions they need to discuss.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And that's what they'll discuss while they're working.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yes, among other things. So anyways, they do a fabulous
job of prepping things, making sure that they're very very clean,
very much ready to go, because if it's not prepped right,
it's not going to hold up.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Well.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
From there it goes to our robotics.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Let's just hit pause for a second, okay, and you
can say that line one more time. If it's not prepped.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, if it's not prepped well, it's the finish is
not going to hold up.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I know. It's something that I think a lot of
people they can buy into that concept to some extent.
But you work with this all the time, you know,
because I talk about it all the time on the show.
You know, a lot of the time in a project,
almost eighty five to ninety percent of the work time
is often.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Our biggest expense is our prep ladies. Yeah, because if
it is not done right, it's not going to hold up.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
It's just not doesn't right. It's the foundation for everything
that you're setting and even and if it doesn't hold up.
You know, it's not just oh, scrape it a little
bit and reef and fix it. If the prep is poor,
depending on how bad it is, you can have a
monumental struggle to get back to a good foundation and
get it cleaned up and ready to go again.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
That is kind of a whole another story. I can
tell you with all absolute certainty, our prep is never
done incorrectly. These ladies do not let anything slip past them.
I mean, they're very, very detailed in what they're doing.
We have had numerous clients that have reached out and
said so and so did my cabinets for me? And
(15:42):
the paint is chipping. It's only been a year. What
can you do at that point? A lot of times
it's past the point of even being able to fix it.
I mean, how do you strip an oak door with
a raised panel and get all of that off so
you're back to where you started and then be able
to do it the right way? It is not worth
(16:02):
it to cut corners, and we just don't cut corners.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So that's that's really good info, and that's info that everybody,
whether you're going to hire Shelley to come out and
do your cabinets. Just take that info. You know it's
coming from somebody other than me. Now, yes, selling you anything, Shelley,
You're not selling them anything. You're just telling them take
the time to prep. I know. It's no fun because preppiness.
And that's why they talk about we'd we'd whackers versus
(16:26):
weed whippers.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
That is exactly why there's a bird feeder on the
window so they can watch the bird. I mean, they're
honestly quite hilarious listening to them. It is not an
exciting job. Spend your life prep Well, they're special, all right,
So do.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
The prep work. You guys do the papwork really well.
They do a great job. Yes, once it's all prepped,
now it hits the spray booth and then the robots
get involved.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yes, so, Amanda, my daughter had been spraying everything manually
and it basically was wrecking her shoulder. She was in
once a week for a massage to try to regain
feeling in it. I mean, as young as she is,
you don't want a wrecked shoulder that young. So we
chose to invest in a robotic spring system. I will
(17:13):
say I do think I had heart failure after we
signed the papers and realized I had just signed my
life away with what it costs. However, it is magical.
It is just I mean, I'm smiling as I think
about it. It has been a game changer. So it
I call it an on ramp. You have an on
(17:34):
ramp on one end, and then it goes into the
actual spraying portion of it. It's got one i'm going
to call it head that moves back and forth across it,
and on that one head there's four different sprayers, so
it is hitting every little itty bitty thing. I think.
As it goes into the actual spraying part, there's like
(17:56):
a thousand little eyes that see it and say, oh,
this door is twenty six and a quarter by thirty
one and a half. So it sprays what it needs
to spray. It's just not spraying like creepy all over it. Nope,
not at all.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
So you've got a video on the website. I watched
that amazing. I heard about the robots yep, and of
course what I want is like the humanoid robot that
talks to you and moves around and brings you coffee
while it's sprains stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
That would be nice.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Not quite that, but it is like you said it
almost looks like a printer head in a.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Way or something really does and what.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
I noticed in that video, And I'll put a link
in the show notes and we'll give out your website
and stuff so people can check this out later. But
the overspray there isn't well, there's overspray, but it's not
just randomly sprayed.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
It really isn't.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
So you're saving and conserving product. Yes, and it's really
really laser focused it is.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah. So yeah, after it's done spraying, it comes out
on the other end, we put it on a rolling rack,
put it in our spray booth slash industrial size oven.
We don't spray in it anymore for the most part.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
We mainly just that big spray booth.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yes, but now we put it in there and we
set it for one hundred and fifty degrees, leave it
in there for thirty to sixty minutes, take it back out.
We can flip it over and do the other side.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
So you're baking it innocence. Is that just to speed
the dry time up? Is there other benefits to what
you're doing.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
More than anything else that speeds the dry time up?
I mean, it probably makes the finish harder. But and
I know we'll get to this. The product that we use,
we add hardener to it anyway, So considered a two
case system. It's the product and the harder mixed together.
But yeah, it does dry it faster. It allows us
(19:47):
a quicker turnaround time with things.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Now you've got I'm assuming, I mean, of course in
that scenario, great consistency. You know you've got dust control, yes, right,
because I know that is something we run into homeowners
when we're doing cabinets. I did my cabinets, sprayed them
in my basement once, you know, a long time ago,
and that looked great. But dust control, yes, I used
(20:10):
an oil based product one year and or one time
that I did them, and I did them all outside.
That was really great, except for I did it in
early falls, so I was getting a little bit of
o oh no, did not even think about that ahead
of time.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Well, it dry so slow when you have an oil
based product.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Little leaves and then sometimes little bugs and things. It
was really annoying. That's not even normal problems. But you're
way beyond that. You're not having any of that. So
the finish has got to be immaculate when it comes off.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I will say with this product that we use in
the owner of the company's stuff, I cannot say enough
good about him. He has been phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
That's the owner of Envirolact. Okay, yeah, so let's talk
about that. You said it's a two K product. That
means there's two parts. Yes, it's hardener with it.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Let me back up just to hear if I may
you ask about the finish that comes out of the
robotic spiring system. Amanda was phenomenal with spraying. I mean
she had been doing it for years. Thus the wrecked
shoulder with our robotic spiring system. Steph came out. He
helped us at the show that we went to in
(21:19):
Atlanta figure out which one was going to be the
best for us, and then once it was set up,
he and one of his other guys came out spend
the day, spent the day out there and helped us
fine tune it and calibrate it for using in Virolac.
The finish that we get from that is so insanely good.
(21:40):
You want five wet mills. When it is put on
and it's a robot, it is always, without fail, every
single solitary time. Five mills a person, regardless of how
good they are, and Amanda was phenomenal. They can't do that,
They just played can't. I mean you get tired, your
(22:02):
arm SAgs, you get hot, you get crabby. Whatever. The
robot does not mouth off. It doesn't get crabby and
say I'm done working, It doesn't get hot. It just
does its thing. And it is consistent five mili every
single solitary time. So it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
So beautiful finish.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
It's unbeatable. It really is very very cool.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
You love the product. Is there anything else? I know
you've got videos on your website where you're taking nail
polish remover. You mightpen that on a door. You even
use a weed whipper or a weed whacker. We're still
not sure.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
No, it's a weed whacker.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Okay, we've decided. I have Okay, you've decided, and you
use that on a sample door.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Well, I'm supposed to tell you this, Okay. Jason, my
son in law, said, I have to tell people. It
was not a pansy plugin weed whacker. It was a
man's weed whacker. It's gas powered.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Okay, so he was using a man's.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
A man's weed waad whacker.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yes to hit this cabinet door. What are you demonstrated?
I mean, I know what you're but people haven't seen that.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Just how durable it is.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
It's what did you get because at first it looked
scarred up a little bit and then you wiped it
with a rag or something that came all off it did.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
It was dusty. The weed whacker was dusty from being
used on action used. Yeah, of course it does.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
All he did was took a rag and wiped it down.
It was fine. We do the home show in Grand Rapids.
We do the one in January and then the home
and Garden in February, March whenever it is. And yes,
we have a little sample door there and my granddaughter
cause again family business. Hm, my granddaughter is making hot
(23:46):
pink hearts on it with nail polish and we have
nail polish remover there and cotton balls for people to
come by and remove the finish.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Because normally nail nail polish removers gonna oh it will
really damage a finish.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Waters do anything nothing on this, No, And we did
the drawer front our sample drawer front in navy blue
on purpose because if you use a cotton ball with
nail polish remover on it, and it takes some of
the finish off. If it was a white door, you
won't see it. I see it on those, but if
it's navy blue you will. I have that same little
(24:24):
drawer front that I still carry around with me. It
might have a few symodges of nail polish remover on
it yet, but aside from that, I show it to clients,
they would never know that we used it for two
weekends and did this to it. Now, I want to
tell you another story really quick, if I may. We
did a project for a client like a year ago.
She had dark gray cabinets that we did, and she
(24:47):
reached out and said that she had a can of
yellow Sperry paint explode in her kitchen. She sent me
some pictures and she just said, I don't know what
I'm supposed to do. I think I'm going to need
to have you redo them. And I said, all joking aside,
try a nail polish remover. If it doesn't work, we
haven't lost anything. We still have to redo them. And
she emailed me back a few days later and she
(25:09):
said the nail polish remover didn't work, but I did
use straight acetone on it. The I know the the
yellow spray paint is off and my cabinets look great.
Thank you, And all I said was awesome. Would you
leave a review for us?
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I tried posting the picture on Google. It wouldn't let
me because the can in the background said acetone And
apparently Google did not like a can that said acetone.
But who can do that with it? If that's a
finished product and we never had to do anything, redo anything.
All the yellow is gone. We have the pictures so
(25:46):
pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
That's that's an amazing product. That's it. It is producked.
So I guess we got everything painted and all of that.
I'm curious about you know, the you come back, you
reinstall everything right, Yes, now we got a finished kitchen.
Once we've gotten to that point, like, what time has passed?
What time has transpired? How long does this normally take?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
If we were going to redoce somebody's current cabinets and
they you Dan said yes, please, let's do this. We
generally start on a Monday, just simply by taking the
doors and drawers down, we're in the house. Depending on
the size of the project, an hour, an hour and
a half Liza then paints, most likely that same week.
(26:31):
She is freaky fast and absolutely amazing. I don't know
how she does it, but she does. And we get
more compliments on Lizza than anybody else. So she does
a fabulous job. So depending on the size of the project,
she might be in your home a day. She might
be in your home three days the following week Wednesday, Thursday,
or Friday. We come back and we put things back together.
(26:55):
If you have done new doors, because we do with
the custom made door and drawer fronts or new counters,
we start a little further in advance. Your home really
isn't torn up. We're just getting in, getting measurements, getting
things going. Really the only time your home is torn apart,
(27:15):
and I like air quote on that because it's still
so usable. Sure, it's Monday from one week to Wednesday,
Thursday or Friday the following week, so.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
A couple weeks ish, but it's still usable, still usable.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
The cabinets we ask that they be emptied before Liza
comes to paint, just to make sure we don't get
anything on anything. But aside from that, your kitchen is usable.
When somebody sprays in the home, basically they're putting a
hazmat suit on the kitchen, and your kitchen probably is
not going to be usable for three to five days,
(27:51):
and it costs more quite honestly, because it takes more time,
takes more product. The way we do it, it's there's
an no dust, there's no anything in the house, there's
really no smell, and the kitchen is very usable. Even
when people do new counters. The company that we work with,
they come in on the day that they're scheduled to
(28:15):
install the new, they remove the old, they put the
new in. We come back the next day, we hook
up the plumbing. Just because of all the things that
we are able to do in the contractors that we
have access to, it's just a very smooth process and
there's very little downtime for you being able to use
(28:36):
your kitchen in the process of this.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
That sounds really good because even if I do it myself,
you know, it does take you know, that kind of time.
You know, people still run into a week's worth of work,
maybe longer, and then you've got all of these things
all over your home. That was always the struggle I
ran into is yeah, kitchen, cabinet doors. You don't realize
how much space that takes up when you start laying
(28:59):
them flat all over the place. Yeah, you know, drying
racks can help. You've got drying racks. I'm sure that
rolling ones to minimize the footprint. But when you're doing
them yourselves, you're still out a lot of time that
you can't use the kitchen exactly the way you always did.
Like you said, you still can use it to some extent.
(29:20):
You still got all these things somewhere. My basement was
full of them. It can be inconvenient. It's still inconvenient.
Two weeks isn't too bad to wait through that. I
want to get to refacing. But before I do that,
real quick, you keep You've mentioned a couple of times,
you know, either by guests or maybe we've talked about it.
But my eighties Oak kitchen, my nineties Oak kitchen cabinets,
(29:43):
that is what I've got a lot of us have those.
I'm curious about the graining, you know, how does the
grain look in the end. Do you fill the grain
do you just let it go? Because sometimes that really
poorous grain. When you put a normal coating on that,
sometimes you can still see some of that, and people
get concerned. They always ask about it, so I'm asking
(30:05):
you for them.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yes, oak is oak. There is grain. We've had people
say I thought you would sand it, and I said
we did and it was still oak.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
There there is a sand it down.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I know, there's really no way around it. What we
do is one of the Envirolact primers that we use is,
let me say it like this, an average primer is
going to be nineteen percent solid. So basically, once everything
(30:40):
is evaporated, nineteen percent of that gallon was solid and viralac.
I think it's forty nine or fifty one percent, so
there's a lot more that stays on it. And the
one seventy in Virolac primer is the primer that we
use when we do oak. We do do too. It's
a primer on it. There is always still going to
(31:03):
be grain. And some of these products that they say
that you can use that will fill it, we have
never really found that it one hundred percent fills it.
What we do is after it's been prime twice. If
my prep ladies look at that and say this would
not fly in my house. Sometimes the oak grain looks
like a meat tenderizer has been used on it. We
(31:26):
will take bondo and fill some of that, but we
don't ever fill all of it. Sure, I tell people,
you will still see the texture. There is no way
around it. There is no color variation. If you're doing
Benjamin More white dove, it is all Benjamin More white dove.
But you still see that texture. There's no way around it.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
And to make it make sure everybody's tracking with exactly
what you're saying. When you look at your oak cabinet
doors now and you see that oak grain and all
of that, it's a lot of that. I mean, you
see the texture, so you see a color variation where
really dark in the grain and the harder wood is
going to be you know, a little bit lighter in
color with that stain. So you see a lot of
(32:09):
that variation. And it really jumps out at you. Once
it's solid coated and it's one color, a lot of that.
It doesn't go away like it's gone, but it visually
almost disappears it it's camouflaged. It is because I notice
when I get a lot of you know, a white
or a whatever color on oak cabinets, Yes, if you
(32:30):
tilt them and look and really dig into it, you're
going to see that that graining, it's not going to
go awigh, But when you stand back and look at
your kitchen, it's going to it's going to look great.
Whatever color you picked, you're not going to see that
grain jumping out at you like you did when it
was stained. Yes, I agree, So all right, let's talk
about refacing because that's a little different process. What exactly
(32:53):
is it and when is this a really great option?
When would somebody want to jump in and do this.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
First of all, I'm going to say a lot of
people don't understand what refacing is, so I try to
look at this from their perspective. I just had a
gentleman stop in yesterday and we were talking and I said, well,
here's the refacing part, and he goes, what's refacing? So
if you have I'm going to use oak. Again, not
(33:20):
trying to hate on oak, but just always make such
a good example. You have oak doors, they are not
full overlay, so they're just barely covering the opening. You
have a lot of the cabinet box portion that's exposed.
You've got raised panels, and you have arches, but you
like the footprint. This is always my question for people,
(33:42):
especially when we do the show if people like their
footprint of their kitchen and that is going to stay
like it is, and they just really don't care for
the dated style of the doors and drawers, they might
have exposed hinges. That is when getting new door and
drawer fronts made could be a great option. We work
(34:06):
with a local company. They are phenomenal. There's a lot
of different options for the styles of doors that you
can get, but it really gives you a chance to
have a truly truly updated look because when we do this,
we have a very full overlay. There is a tiny
(34:27):
little bit of clearance between the doors and drawers, so
you really don't see a whole lot of the housing portion.
Most people go with some version of a shaker style.
You now have hidden soft closing hinges. It's just a
really good way to update it. And I know the
question always is, yeah, but my boxes are oak, so
(34:51):
what about those? Because the faces of them with the
new door and drawer fronts are pretty much covered, you
really do. I don't see that any end caps that
are visible. If we prime those ones and we can
see that oak grain is super super heavy, we will
(35:13):
do like a quick skim coat of something on that
sand it and prime.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
It again just to minimize that gus.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Yes, but it's I'm going to guess if you were
going to reface your kitchen with the new custom door
and drawer fronts, new courts counters have it painted average
size kitchen and this is just really off the top
(35:42):
of my head, I'm going to say maybe thirteen fourteen
thousand dollars if you gutted that kitchen and replaced it
with the same footprint, you're probably looking at forty five
thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
So huge savings compared.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, and when you think about it, now, all of
your cabinets are removed, your counters are gone. How long
is your house torn up? Do you have to do
new floors? Now? What if you have newer counters and
you don't want to replace your counters, But if you
got it, you have to replace your counters. They can't
reuse them. This is such a cost effective way to
(36:22):
do things, and the finish that we are able to
produce legitimately is better than a factory finish. I live
in a condo that is our condo areas five six
years old, some of the newer ones maybe four years old.
I have friends that have chips in their brand new
cabinets already. I don't have chips in mine because I
(36:44):
used in Virolac on it. So why not, I guess
that would be my question? Why not do it that way?
We can make modifications. If somebody has an island and
they want it bigger, he's.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Going to ask that you can adjust that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Sure can. Yeah, we have a contractor that we really
really like. We have made a point of surrounding ourselves
with great people.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Yeah. It works really really well. You don't have to
have them on staff. Yeah, but there you've got a
great network of experts that you can reach out to.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
We do, and I don't think we are any better
than the people that we refer. So the people the
gentleman that we refer for modifications were very confident that
he's doing a great job for our clients. He's treating
them well, his prices are fair, et cetera. So yeah,
we can make modifications. We can do that.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
So if I don't have a dishwasher, but I want one, and.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
There's a bank of cabinets that can come out. Usually, Yes,
we did that for a gentleman in Kalamazoo. He's seventy
and he said he did not want dishpan hands, he
needed a dishwasher.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
We put a dishwasher in for him. If people have
cabinets over their stove and they want a trendy hoodvent instead,
we can do that all. Not we, but our contractor
that we refer. Sure, So, yes, we can do these things.
We can make these modifications. In my own condo, I
(38:20):
had two banks of cabinets that had a drawer and
two doors below. And at fifty nine years old, I'm
not in the mood to get on my hands and
knees and crawl into the back of that.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
And let's spend so much time on my hands and
knees pawn around trying to whatever I need in there.
And I was going to ask this question, you can
turn those into drawers. Is that what we did?
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Yep, Even in my own condo we did. It is magical.
I have I have leftover space, so everything that came
out of those cabinets is now in those drawers, and
the drawers are not totally full.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Yeah, I would imagine, and that I'm thinking that through now.
I wouldn't just it wouldn't be an even swap. I
would gain space. Yeah, there's a lot of air, a
lot of yeah, and space in my cupboards that aren't
getting it's not getting used. Yeah, there's in a drawer.
I can pack those babies full.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
And you can pull those babies out and get to
what you need to without getting on your hands and knees.
That is a win win.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
That is a win win. And I'm so short that yeah,
I won't even have to bend over. It's right there. Okay,
So all kinds of different things. You answered a bunch
of other questions that I had at the end. Here countertops,
you can help me with that, all kinds of different materials.
I mean you just you've got people you work with, right.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yes, we work with a local company for that. We
can do courts granted, Dolomite court site, all the goods.
Wonderful people that we work with do a great job.
So yes, we can do that, all right. And you
would ask about hardware at one point, and I did
not answer that question. When I come to somebody's home
(40:01):
to help with color selection, I have lots and lots
of hardware samples with me, so I can help people
with that.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
I owe that for a minute, just because That's another
one of my little things that I've I've talked about.
I love to talk about from time to time because
I did. I painted in my kitchen cabinets. I told
you about that. I sprayed them all, you know, these
long long ago. Now I got oak again in a
new house and I don't know, waiting for it to
come back in. But anyways, painted all these cabinets white. Yeah,
abyss kind of a color. It looked great. I was
(40:29):
so happy. And because I was cheap, I put the
old hardware back on because it was all right, you know,
it was all right and they look good. But then
like a year later, I decided, okay, it's time to
get rid of that brass that I run on and
I got something that was more modern at the time.
And I was stunned at how expensive it was. You know,
(40:52):
all cards on the table here. It's unfately to get
all of that. And I was really bummed because I'm
really cheap, like I said, But I got them on
and it was one of those jobs where when I
painted my cabinets the year before, you know, I would
just sit in the kitchen and look at them because
it was such.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
A big test and how good you did.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Right when I put just the hardware on, I spent
almost as much time staring at the cabinets because it
looked brand new again. Yeah, it is amazing, long winded
story to get to the point. Hardware makes a tremendous.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Difference at one hundred percent does well. How I like
doing hardware, and I tell our clients this, but I
always tell them as well, your house, your rules. More
often than not they'll just say, you just tell me
what you would do, you know, make all your notes,
and then tell me. I like hardware that is very
(41:45):
proportionately sized. So we're doing a project for a client.
She's got an island, has four drawers, four doors, and
we're going to have six very large drawers, which she's
very excited about. The drawers are going to be about
thirty eight inches wide. When I help her select hardware,
I'll suggest twelve inch handles because it really really makes
(42:08):
a pop. I like mixing knobs and different size handles
for me. When I help somebody figure stuff out for hardware,
I will usually have four different sizes because a really
small door, really small doors over the microwave or the
refrigerator might have a knob, or it might have a
(42:30):
three and three quarter inch handle a pantry door. For me,
putting a knob on there says to me, I ran
out of money and all I could afford was a knob.
But if you've got house, if you've got a five
foot pantry door or four foot, then put something like
eight and three quarter inch handle on it. It looks
so sharp when you're not scared to do that. They're
(42:54):
all the same handles, they're just different sizes, and I
have yet for somebody to say to me that just
looks weird. The husband usually will be like, hmm, okay,
so how many sizes are we doing? And when it's done,
they will stand back and go, you are right, to
which I reply, I know, because you're so humble sometimes.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
But that's good.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
I know what looks really really good, and I'm never
going to force that on anybody. But they're happy with
it when it's done.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
That's really helpful because it isn't something that we do
a lot. That's not a thought process that probably for sure,
it's not a thought process that everybody out there thinks about.
I never thought about that. I would have just bought
the same sizes and I would have moved through, and
I probably I might not have even known that it
looked weird.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
You would probably think it looked fine, yes, until it
would be done the Shelly way.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
And then I would realize what I had missed out
on you.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Right now, I'm not sounding humble at all, but you
probably would have looked at that then and went, oh, okay,
I get it. Yeah, because it truly does make a difference.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
So you'll help people with all of that. Yes, yeah,
So Shelley Kuiper's from Shelley's Kitchen in Design. Let's give
out your information if anybody's interested. I think you made
a good case for why they might want to get
a quote. Let's talk about that. First. They get the
quote by.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Going going to our website, which is Shelley's Kitchens, and
there's a link right up there that says get free
quote here. I tell people it'll take you all of
maybe three minutes to do it. It's that simple.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
And then you thought, within twenty four to forty eight
hours they've quote, they've got all of that information. What's
the service area that you'll cover.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Right now? I mean we are located in Jennison. We
do really anything around here. We've done lots of projects.
In South Haven, we have done a number of projects
Kalamazoo Shortage area, I mean Cascade eight at Tons. There
is one area in eight To. When I looked it up,
it was like one of those courts there was the
(45:08):
north in the south. There's ten houses on it, and
I think we've done eight of them. Ok.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Yeah. I were talking to some decorators in Traverse City
because it's been requested more than once that we have
a presence up there. But I mean, yeah, really the
West Michigan area we cover that we've done. I figured
it out the other day with little help from chat GPT.
I put some stuff in there and I said, help
me figure out how many jobs we've done in fifteen years.
(45:37):
And I'm thinking we've done roughly thirty six hundred kitchens.
Oh man, Yeah, team of seventeen right now, and we
do an average of four projects a week.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
All right, Well, if you want your kitchen to be
one of those projects, reach out probably from what I'm here,
and the best way to reach out is to start
with that quote, right, So that's on your website.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
And I do call each person and that requests the
price a few days later and just ask what questions
they have that I can answer. People do and sometimes
they're intimidated to reach out. And I enjoy chatting with people.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
So I think you'd make it really easy and just
a lot of different You know, an entire package is
what you're presenting here, everything from helping with the color
to getting a product that like you explained that story
where the spray paint, Yeah, and a spray paint blew
up and they were able to wash it off with
ace tone. Oh my goodness, that's insanity. It really is
(46:33):
still look good. So a great product. Helping with color,
helping with hardware, you can connect people to know experts
who get countertops installed, make minor modifications to the kitchen,
all kinds of different things all in one package. So yeah,
what's that website? One more time?
Speaker 2 (46:51):
It is Shelley so s H E L L Y
S kitchens dot com.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
All right, I'll put links to all of that in
the show notes. You do kit you also do bathroom cabinets, right.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
We really specialize in cabinets, So anything cabinet related, yes,
we do that. We have people we can refer for walls,
but our niche specifically is cabinets of any sort perfect.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
So if you've got any cabinets and you want to
at least get a quote, just get an idea. Yes,
if Shelley sold you on her system, her product, and
all of that reach out, I'll put links in the
show notes. Shelley, thanks for being here, thank you for
having me, and that's going to do it for this
episode of Home in Progress, I want to thank Shelley
Kiper's from Shelley's Kitchens and Designs for joining me and
for sharing not just you know the technical side of
(47:38):
refinishing and refacing, but also the heart of a three
generation family business. Now, if you've been wondering whether or
not your dated oak kitchen can be saved, or if
refacing might be a smarter path than a full remodel,
go see what Shelley's team is doing at Shelley's Kitchens
dot com. I'll drop all the links in the show notes,
including a direct link to their free quote form. Now,
as always, this podcast is brought to you by Repcolli
(48:00):
Paints and Benjamin Moore. And if you enjoyed today's episode,
make sure that you follow or subscribe to Home in
Progress wherever you get your podcasts, and that way you'll
never miss an episode. All right, have a great week everybody,
and i'll see you next time. I'm Dan Hansen. Thanks
for listening.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com