Pickled Pink

Anyone who had a house built in the 1990s may remember the option of choosing pink pickled cabinets for kitchens and baths. Maybe you bought a house built in the early 1990s with this style of cabinet and wondered what designers were thinking at the time.

Oh my! I believe pink pickled cabinets went out the same way disco did. Hopefully this finish will not make a come back the way disco tried to.

Fortunately for me, I have not had to concern myself with facing the daunting task of replacing, refacing, or refinishing pink pickled cabinets for myself.

However, since 50 percent of what I do to pay the bills is to refinish cabinets, I have had to witness my client's facing the task. Many opt to refinish with trendy glaze treatments over a creamy base coat.

Others favor stark, contrasting, solid color finishes in greens, blues, and black. Add some distressing to these finishes, and you have a beautifully aged, contemporary look.

My favorite finish to apply is a re-grain finish. Not only is re-graining considered a faux finish, re-graining commands higher monetary rewards for the applicator because it requires a high degree of artistic skills to pull the finish off successfully. What is not to like?

The samples below show the finished re-grain for a simple Tuscany style kitchen. As apparent in the before photo, the client replaced the counter tops and the floor prior to refinishing the cabinets.

Doing so prevents other contractors from messing up the new cabinet finish, and makes choosing the right color pallet for the finish easier because the colors for the finish can be pulled from the floor or counter tops. 

Additionally, If the client does not know what counter tops or flooring to choose, refinishing the cabinets first can limit options for either after the fact. 

Therefore, the best recommendation is to set in place flooring and counter top options prior to refinishing those cabinets. Doing so will ensure your new cabinet finish works well with the new surroundings. 

However you choose to refinish your cabinets, I hope you are not pickled pink. If you are, help is on the way...

Happy Refinishing!