Hand Painted Kitchens and Solid Wood Kitchens in Ireland by Abbeywood Furniture

PROCESS:
· Consultation
· Design
· Budget
· Manufacture
· Installation

CONSULTATION
By prior appointment we offer a free consultation service where Dónal meets the clients and discusses individual plans and clients ideas. From here Dónal can offer a rough estimate on the cost of the project.

DESIGN
Once the clients needs and wants are established the design process begins. We prepare a set of outlined plans and a budget estimate. Most projects are changes numerous times at design stage to achieve the clients’ full satisfaction.

When designing a kitchen there are a number of key elements that need to be taken into account. A kitchen needs to be functional as well as desirable. A functional kitchen needs to include adequate cooking, washing up, storage and preparation areas. Larger kitchen areas will also include a dining table and further display or storage cabinets.
The kitchen is the most used room in any house. In order to enjoy this room on a practical as well as a social aspect it is important to maximise the feeling of space, take advantage of special views and position the kitchen furniture in a balanced and functional manner.
These are all important elements in the design of your kitchen but the most important being your own personality, your own fingerprint, your own spice, “that” what makes your kitchen yours, uniquely yours.

There are 4 key qualities to a bespoke piece of furniture

1. Quality of Design
2. Quality of Materials
3. Quality of Construction
4. Quality of Finishing

Abbeywood Furniture offers a professional designer’s view of the varied possibilities of each project. The furniture is truly bespoke, being designed and built to proportions best suited for the given space.
Dónal’s design ethic: “I have a genuine belief in a design ideal and I offer an honest appraisal of my clients’ ideas. My goal is a plan that extends beyond the immediate kitchen area to achieve a contemporary living space for enjoying cooking entertaining and relaxing in beautiful surroundings. I will often recommend alterations to the fabric of the house if I consider there to be major stumbling blocks compromising the ideal.
With regards to the furniture itself, if anything, I try to influence Abbeywood Furniture clients that less is more. Kitchens, especially small ones, need space as well as storage. The style and quality of our furniture is the result of my own personal tastes and a passionate search for excellence. Because of this I have a real affinity with my clients’ tastes and expectations”.

BUDGET:
Our Kitchen furniture starts at €15k, our clients typically spend €20k - €45k
on their kitchens including appliances.

Our freestanding furniture costs vary depending upon design.

MANUFACTURE:

We design and make all the wood components of the furniture in our workshop

Materials

By using solid natural timbers we can ensure that our furniture maintains its integrity under the rigours of a lifetime of wear and tear.
All man-made composite materials such as melamine or veneered chipboard, MDF or ply once damaged become very vulnerable to damp and prone to swelling and delaminating. The use of these materials limits the life span of the cabinet.
Abbeywood Furniture commissions a wide variety of timbers e.g. Walnut, elm, oak, beech, chestnut, to name but a few. For painted cabinets, Abbeywood Furniture makes the frames, doors and drawer fronts from solid hardwoods, which are stable, durable and knot free. This ensures a smooth surface, crisp edges and moreover that the paint finish does not suffer from resinous knot stains. The interior carcassing is made from cabinetry grade red deal and the work surfaces from granite, Corian, glass or solid hardwoods.
Despite the high cost of these natural timbers we resist using cheaper materials that only appear good value in the short term.

Construction

We take great pride in the quality of our cabinetry. Each piece of furniture is built by a qualified experienced cabinetmaker using time-honoured cabinet making techniques, in our workshop in Mourneabbey.
In particular the furniture is built from solid timber frames, panels, carcassing, doors, drawers and work tops which are constructed using the following methods.
· The frames are mortice and tenoned
· The doors hang on solid brass butt hinges
· The doors and drawers are flush fitting within the frame and have a consistently even gap all round
· The drawers are of solid box construction with traditional dovetails
or metal box if the client prefers
· The solid hardwood worktops are made from the widest timber boards
In short, we have adopted every technique that could possibly improve the quality of construction.

Finishing

The secret to the highest quality finishing is in the base material, preparation and expert application.
We offer lacquered, oiled (for our worktops) or painted finishes. An oiled finish adds certain lustre to beautifully grained hardwoods worktops. It does require regular re-oilings by the owner so we also offer a lacquered finish. The lacquer has a soft sheen, is non-yellowing and provides durable long lasting protection. Cabinets to be painted are built from knot free hardwood and are meticulously prepared, primed and lacquer painted or hand painted with even brush strokes following the grain by experienced furniture finishers.

INSTALLATION:
The installation of our kitchens and furniture is arranged to suit out clients. We understand the fragility of schedules especially with self-build projects, so we endeavour to make ourselves flexible.