Retro Renovation» cabinets

Stripping paint from kitchen cabinets and returning to the original 1950s wood — “some therapy” but great results

pam kueber — Wed, 23 May 2012 08:30:45 +0000

1950s wood kitchen, “Before”:

… Cabinets painted black, “After”:

… But then: 50 hours of stripping later, “After” returns to “Before”… back to the natural wood:

Yes, haven’t we all done it — made a *big* decorating *mistake* that then takes hours to unwind. After he bought his 1950s house, Uncle Atom tried to dial up the retro in his original kitchen by painting the cabinets black, to coordinate with the black-and-white floor he also installed. But, it was just too dark, he said. So, some 50 hours of paint stripping later — he has returned his 1950s Scheirich kitchen cabinets to their original natural wood glory. A lesson here, maybe: Wood is good — especially much of the stuff used for kitchen cabinets back in the 1950s and 1960s…. So think long and hard before painting over it. As an alternative: Maybe a good cleanup and a fresh coat of shellac (or another product — I know readers have different favored methods) and the cabinets will be like new again for another few decades?

Continue on to learn about Uncle Atom’s process for removing the paint and then restoring an original finish to the cabinets… Dental picks, anyone? –>

I asked Uncle Atom to tell me what it took to remove all that black paint. He said:

Hi Pam,

Our kitchen cabinets have a total of 18 doors, 7 drawers, and a lazy susan. I chose to tackle the job in sections so we could continue to use the kitchen throughout. I used pieces from a large roll of construction paper to protect countertops and floors while I stripped the cabinet faces.

On average it took a few minutes to remove a door and seal the hardware in a ziplock bag to keep from losing any screws or other pieces. It also took a few minutes to apply the stripper. Then I would wait about an hour on average for the stripper to do its work.

I used a standard razor blade holder for scraping off the loosened paint and it usually peeled off easily. Since there was white primer under the black paint, if I started scraping away the black too soon, the primer would not easily come off. A few times I had to apply more stripper to break up the primer, wait another hour and then scrape again. Then I used steel wool to remove any remaining paint or primer. I pulled the razor blade scraper through the routed channel on the door edges to get the paint out of the corners and crevices, then I followed with coarse steel wool and sandpaper. For tiny stubborn areas on doors and cabinet faces, I used dental picks I keep in my workshop.

I probably spent a total of about 1-2 hours on each door panel (applying stripper, scraping, rubbing with steel wool and/or sandpaper, wiping everything down with mineral spirits, and finish sanding.) in a couple of cases the razor peeled back a piece of the wood, and then I had to glue and clamp the wood down. Once the glue dried I sanded the glued section to smooth that area out. Drawer fronts took about one third of the time that went into a door panel.

Before I shellacked a piece I wiped over it again with mineral spirits to remove and sawdust or specks of dirt. I didn’t think I needed to condition the wood, and after I shellacked one door as a test, I chose to skip a conditioning step.

I gave each drawer front and door panel two to three coats of amber shellac on all surfaces and edges. The shellac dries very fast (less than five minutes). If the dried shellac had some rough areas I used very fine steel wool to smooth things out. I used the time I had while waiting for the stripper to work to clean, prime and spray the door and drawer handles with metallic copper paint.

Once each door panel was done, I reattached the hinges and handles and reattached the door to the cabinet face. I chose to wait on reattaching the door catches and did those at the end of the job all at one time. (It takes a little adjusting to get each door catch to line up so it will correctly function to keep the door closed.)

I used about four large containers of the Citrus Strip and a couple of quarts of Bullseye Amber shellac.

It took me about six weekends and some evenings of work to get everything done. We’re very happy with the results, and now I’m motivated to tackle the countertops next although I haven’t decided what kind of Formica to use. I wish I could find something close to the mint green with gold specks Formica we have now. It’s in pretty rou shape with some burn marks. Soon I hope to get our vintage Frigidaire Flair double oven installed in the 40-inch wide space where we have a smaller oven right now.

I forgot that you asked for a photo of me. Here’s one of me in the wayback of my old station wagon, a 1969 Mercury Colony Park I restored a few years ago. I sold it to make room for another project.

Thank you, Uncle Atom. What a tenacious DIY-er you are — very impressive. Readers, remember, if you are stripping old paint be sure you know what’s in it… consult with a professional. Barry is the one who painted his cabinets black — so he knew there was no lead in the paint.

Links:

Uncle Atom’s kitchen when he first bought it.
Kitchen cabinets “during” stripping.
Kitchen cabinets “after.“
Uncle Atom is a tenacious blogger, too! Be sure to check out his site.

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Design your own workbench – amazing selection and prices

pam kueber — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:50:04 +0000

Skip the prefab workbenches from Sears or wherever: Design your own workbench — or crafting area — to fit your space and needs using the amazing variety of legs, shelves, stringers, drawers and countertops available from McMaster-Carr. Researching storage solutions for my office remodel, I bumped into an amazing resource for all kinds of home improvement materials – McMaster-Carr — last week. Their product line is pretty expansive, and their prices seem very competitive. This company claims 490,000 items on their website. There are a big bunch of ready-made workbenches here. BUT, if you want to design your own, here’s the trick:

Go to this page, Workbench Legs. 10 different styles of workbench legs. Argh, lots of choices: Adjustable height (great when you want to get your countertop to 40″ high, as I do, for my crafting studio), non-adjustable height… possible countertop depths 24-30-36″… different shelving arrangements… and I love that recessed style design, drats, I only wish it could handle a 24″ deep countertop. Note: It’s likely you are going to need a stringer for your legs to provide stability. And on the pages for each leg style, you also will be able to select shelving that fits your legs.
Next, click here –> choose from eight types of countertops to go on your workbench legs. There is steel… stainless steel… maple butcher block… oak butcher block… particle board… laminate and two styles of scientific work tops including that black stuff like they had in science class — very cool!
Do you want to add some drawers? There are three styles that can be mounted on the underside of your countertop.
What else? Upper shelves here…. Casters? 2,596 to choose from.

Yikes, this place is work bench and tool room heaven. My favorite store has always been: A hardware store.

Note, I am going to follow up this story with one listing all the different makers of workbenches that I could identify. Meanwhile, I think McMaster-Carr is a great place to start if you want to design your own.

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Viking discontinues St. Charles steel kitchen cabinet sales

pam kueber — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:30:15 +0000

”…low level of … orders … in this difficult economy
makes it unfeasible to maintain
such a small volume of production,” Viking says

St. Charles kitchen cabinets promoted for the launch of the new Viking brand, December 2007

Viking Range Corporation confirms that, in the first quarter of this year, it discontinued the manufacturing and sales of its St. Charles steel kitchen cabinet brand. The “original” St. Charles brand — launched in 1935 — was the creme-de-la-creme of vintage cabinets. The brand was purchased by Viking in 2001; they discontinued sales of the legacy design in 2004, and they launched their newly engineered designs for sale in 2008. I reached out to Viking, and they provided this statement, which they said was made to dealers in Q1:

As the economy continues to struggle, it is important that companies commit their resources where they have the most long term impact. With that in mind and after much contemplation and review, Viking Range Corporation has decided to discontinue manufacturing St Charles cabinetry.

Viking has a strong emotional attachment to the St Charles brand and has supported it for six years; however, the low level of St. Charles orders we are receiving in this difficult economy makes it unfeasible to maintain such a small volume of production.

Viking remains committed to supporting the network of St Charles dealers and their current customers as we work through this shutdown transition together.

- Viking Range Corporation

Two readers first alerted me on Feb. 15 that St. Charles cabinet dealers told them that they could no longer buy the cabinets. Comments came in this story about the lovely array of colors that Viking offers for its refrigerators, stoves and other appliances. One of the commenters, Dave, said:

I recently tried to buy cabinets and all sales have been put on hold while Viking tries to find a buyer for the brand. You can’t buy new St. Charles right now for any amount of money. Sad really, we are back to the drawing board for our 1951 re-do…

A spokesperson for Viking would not officially comment on whether the St. Charles brand was for sale. The St. Charles website has been deactivated, and we’ve recently spotted three dealers selling their showroom displays on craigslist or Facebook.

St. Charles was a longtime, iconic steel kitchen cabinet brand, and derived its name because the company was based in St. Charles, Ill. You can read more about the company’s history on our vintage steel kitchen cabinet Forum, where we help buyers and sellers connect and where we’ve identified more than 70 different vintage brands.

During all this time, as far as I know, St. Charles was considered “top of the line” — the gauge of the steel was very, very heavy. According to my research, it was the very last of the iconic brands to endure in the marketplace. The 21st century Viking/St. Charles cabinets were the only premium steel kitchen cabinet widely available in the U.S. market, as far as I know. Above: A mid-1980s advertisement from my personal collection. More info on the history of steel kitchen in midcentury America here.

I will let you know if / when there is more information on the status and potential future availability of new manufacture St. Charles kitchen cabinets. Viking told me in an email, “Should there be any updates regarding the St. Charles brand, we will certainly communicate that to you in a very timely manner.”

Other stories about the new-generation St. Charles kitchen cabinets that I have featured on the blog:

I reported that Viking had purchased and would relaunch the St. Charles brand in spring 2008.
A few years later, I followed up with a story on the use of the St. Charles kitchen cabinets in the Frank Sinatra house, Twin Palms”, in Palm Springs.

Moving to opinion — mine:

I would love to see the St. Charles brand endure and succeed. I have not seen a lot of vintage St. Charles kitchen cabinets in person — but the few I have seen were gorgeous, and definitely superior compared to any other vintage brands I’ve seen. HEAVY DUTY.

I never saw one the “revival” St. Charles kitchens in person, although they sure looked nice online. They certainly seem to have been marketed to the high-end consumer. When, a few years ago I asked Viking for pricing, they could not give it to me — prices were not even published.

Now that the brand is being sunsetted by Viking, we’re starting to get some clearer indications of how expensive they were, as dealers list their display models for sale. Currently, this set of seven kitchen dealer showroom cabinets is for sale for $8,950. Moreover, the dealer says the MSRP retail price was $23,000. That’s more than $3,000 per cabinet. Another showroom display, spotted by participants on our Forum, indicated a similar, hefty retail price: $48,300 for 14 cabinets, which averages $3,400 per cabinet. Again – these are full-retail prices; the price as sold by dealers may have been discounted. For example, I recall that on the Forum, we had another commenter say she’d been quoted around $800 for a 36″ base cabinet. Here’s a third display for sale; if you are in the market, these would surely be lovely to own.

Even so, I’m not saying this pricing was crazy or anything: I bet for sure, that for Viking, manufacturing steel kitchen cabinets and also maintaining a dealer infrastructure was very costly. Buyers would have been very high end — this market would have demanded custom sizes, features and service to the nth degree. I really think that selling kitchen cabinets and selling stoves must be vastly different: The stoves and appliances are almost like commodities at this point; the kitchens, on the other hand, are “high touch” custom. Very labor intensive to deal with. And we are talking: Powder coated steel. I am sure that must cost much more than wood, MDF and particle board — key components in wood kitchen cabinets.

Not to mention, and as Viking pointed out in their statement, there is the economy: The Great Recession hit just as Viking was launching the St. Charles brand — that could not have helped either, *understatement*.

What to do if you want steel kitchen cabinets for your retro inspired kitchen?

Buy vintage. Some tips:

See all my stories about steel kitchen cabinets here.
How and where to buy (or sell) vintage metal kitchen cabinets.
Analysis of pricing for vintage steel cabinets bought in 2010.
How to make vintage metal kitchen cabinets fit into your kitchen.
A short history of steel kitchen cabinets.
The Retro Renovation steel kitchen cabinet buy/sell Forum.

All material as published here is copyright RetroRenovation.com 2012
No material in this story may be published in any format without written permission.

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