About Pluckandfeather

We Work On Kitchens That Were Built By Hand

Pluckandfeather is a painting outfit in Pasadena that ended up specializing in old cabinetry almost by accident. We are based off Los Robles Ave in the 91105 ZIP, and the first few years here were ordinary interior work: plaster walls, trim, the occasional exterior. Then enough people asked us to save a kitchen instead of replacing it that the cabinet work became the thing we are known for.

The houses are the reason. Pasadena has an unusual amount of intact early housing stock, from the Craftsman bungalows around Bungalow Heaven to the Spanish Revival stucco further west, and a lot of those kitchens still hold their original built-ins. Somebody shaped those face frames on a machine that no longer exists, in fir that no longer gets cut that way. The doors are doweled and square eighty years on. You cannot buy that, and what usually replaces it is sprayed MDF.

Why the Profile Is the Whole Argument

A coat of dried paint is about the thickness of a sheet of paper. That is why nobody notices the first one. But a bead detail is measured in sixteenths, so six coats of accumulated history is enough to turn a crisp shadow line into a soft bump. The kitchen still functions, it just looks vaguely wrong, and most people cannot say why.

So our version of the job runs backwards from what you might expect. We spend more hours taking material off than putting it on. Strippers and detail tools on the moldings, a hard scuff on the flat panels, repairs to hinge mortises and split stiles, then the thinnest sound coating that will hold up in a room where things get slammed and steamed.

How We Run a Job in Your House

Doors and drawer fronts come off, get labeled and are finished flat, because a horizontal surface lets a coating level out instead of sagging into the cove. Boxes and face frames get done in place behind containment. You keep your counters, your sink and your range the entire time.

We test old finishes before we disturb them. Anything built before 1978 can carry lead in the lower layers, and this city is full of houses from well before that, so wet methods and contained work are normal here rather than exceptional.

We will also tell you when the answer is no. Swollen particle board at the sink, missing doors, a layout that genuinely does not work: those are replacement jobs, and pretending otherwise would just cost you money twice.

Call (626) 747-2676, or find us at 8266 Los Robles Ave, Pasadena, CA 91105. Ask for a single test door before you commit to anything.