04/01/2026
This one was personal… You see, I’ve known Ann and Matt since I was 12. But after they attended my wedding almost 29 years ago, we lost touch with each other. While I’ve moved back and forth across the country and from Lake Orion to Clarkston to Rochester, they have been living in the same house, with the same cabinets, where I used to babysit.
So when Ann messaged me and asked if I could help update her 1980’s oak kitchen and do some painting for them, I was honored and thrilled.
We measured and ordered new flat slab custom doors and drawer fronts and finished them with Novalk’s European industrial cabinet coating. The oak cabinet boxes were grain-filled to give them the same super smooth finish as the new doors. We installed new toe kicks and shoe molding to replace the old tired ones. And probably what Ann was most excited about, we cut out the center stile between two cabinet openings and installed new soft-closed rollout shelves. Soft-close hinges and new pulls were the perfect finishing touches.
The kitchen is the heart of the home. And when we help our clients achieve the kitchen they have been picturing in their mind, and the kitchen feels more like an accurate reflection of them, there’s a little something special that happens between us. A little spark of friendship and mutual appreciation. But this one was bigger. This one was personal.
