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How Grainy is your Wooden Kitchen?
Our Spray Technicians spray paint laminate, melamine, veneer and real wood kitchens. Real wood can often be grained, especially items made from oak. With grain, lighter and darker variations are visible within the wood. When we visit a customer prior to booking their spray in, we assess the level of grain so that we can advise our customers about their options, so that they know what to expect once their kitchen spray has been completed.
If kitchen cabinets are grained, note that paint will not fill in that grain. After paint has been applied, the grain will still be there. The vast majority of our customers love this effect and are pleased that you can still notice that their kitchen is made from real wood. There are however some customers who would prefer not to see the grain and so here we advise about grain visibility and how it can be reduced.
How Grainy is your Wooden Kitchen?
If you have had your wood grained kitchen installed for many years, the grain may no longer be something that you notice. You can assess the extent of the grain by running your hand over the items to see how smooth they feel. Lightly grained wood usually feels quite smooth whereas you would feel texture if you run your hand over more heavily grained wood. Some real wood kitchens can also have distinctive cracks and knots, which can be considerably deep. Items can also have deeper grain in some parts than in other parts. Bear in mind that if the wood grain is different depths in different areas, the appearance of the different depths can be enhanced once the items have been spray painted. You therefore need to make a decision as to whether you wish to keep the wood grained appearance or whether you wish to fill the grain prior to our team attending to complete your spray.
Filling the Grain
If you would prefer for your kitchen to be perfectly smooth, we ask that you fill the grain and any other imperfections or arrange for somebody to do this for you as unfortunately, our teams do not have time to apply filler when they attend to spray. Have a read of our blog post to learn about the extensive preparation that our teams carry out when spraying a kitchen. Filling is both time consuming and labour intensive and a lot of sanding is necessary in between applications and to ensure a smooth finish. Our teams would not be able to dedicate enough time to what they’re best at, spraying, if they were to spend time eliminating all of the grain.
We would therefore recommend that you find a reputable company who specialises in filling but do bear in mind that you will need to factor in the extra cost that will accrue from their time and labour, given that this is a lengthy process. Do not worry however as with kitchen spraying being a much cheaper alternative to having a kitchen replaced, it is likely that you will still be able to refresh your kitchen for less than buying a new kitchen, even if you do choose to have the grain filled.
Opting for a Darker Colour
It is also worth pointing out that the grain in their kitchen is not something that our customers usually pay much attention to. While grain is noticeable if you are looking closer than you usually would, such as just after a spray, generally the overall colour and sheen is what you are going to notice day in day out. A tip is to opt for a darker colour if you are worried about the visibility of the grain but do not wish to have it filled, as the darker the colour, the more it can hide any imperfections. Possibly go for a neutral colour or even darker instead of a white or an off white, to minimise the appearance of the grain.
We hope that we have answered any queries that you may have and helped you reach a decision as to whether you would or would not like to fill your grain. Here at We Spray UPVC, we love the look of a real wood kitchen with the grain intact and it seems that many customers do also, as painted oak cabinets are increasing in popularity and are on trend right now.
Please feel free to get in touch if you do have any further queries or if you would like an estimate to have a kitchen or other items sprayed.
