Artisan of the Month
Pamela Coslet
Vineyard Chic Kitchens
St. Charles, IL

Pamela Coslet started out finishing furniture as a hobby several years ago.  When her home burned down two years ago, the house had to be completely rebuilt.   While finishing her kitchen, Pamela was looking for a unique finish for her cabinets and could not find what she was looking for.  Instead, she ended up finishing her own cabinets.  After she completed the job she brought one of the doors that she had done to the cabinet maker to show him.  He was very impressed with her work and began referring customers to her, and Vineyard Chic Kitchens was born.  Initially, she only finished cabinet for suppliers.  However, after showcasing her finishes at some expos, she started to receive requests to refinish old existing cabinets for homeowners.

Pamela’s Husband Bill has been flipping houses for 20 years.  In almost every home that he’s worked with, he has put in a new kitchen.  This made it a natural extension for him to work with Pamela.  Pamela says of their work relationship “we work as a team.  Bill sprays the lacquers and provides custom work such as islands and smaller remodels, while I apply the finishes.”  Pamela enjoys the independence of being her own boss.  Making her own hours and being able to build and direct her own business brings her a great sense of accomplishment.  Her favorite part of her business however, is the happy reaction that she receives from her customers after she completes the job.

When asked about what her favorite finish is she says that she enjoys doing one of the more popular finishes, white dove as a base with a Vandyke brown over top.  She loves working with distressed finishes, either crackled or rubbed off finishes.  One of the aspects that she enjoys about doing custom work is that her customers are able to choose any color that they would like for their finish.  She says that she has always been good with color and loves the design aspect of her work. 

Her go-to products from Kathy Carroll’s store are ML Campbell’s Lacquer, and she uses Golden’s Proceed color as well as mediums.   She adds that she uses a lot of carbon black colorant.  She chooses to work with these products because of their ease of use on the job.  She also says of ML Campbell products that they bond very well to existing surfaces.

Pamela also spoke about one of her favorite jobs.  She had a customer who had a lot of oak and antique décor throughout the house, however the kitchen was black and white and contemporary in style.  She worked the sample in a “New Orleans” style using a white dove color with Vandyke brown, and a little black to tie in the black in the rest of the kitchen.  Her customer was very pleased with the look that she achieved and gave her the go ahead.  Pamela applied the finish and added bead board around the peninsula in the kitchen and glazed it an espresso brown color to bring in the brown from the other areas of the home.  The end result was a stunning kitchen and a very happy customer.

Pamela has taken the Cabinet Refinishing class from Barb Runyard at the Chicago Institute of fine finishes, and says of her experience “the class was full of great information.  It covered spray techniques, glazing, and it even included the formulas for everything we worked on.  Then Kathy went on to talk about refinishing cabinets as a business, which was very helpful to me.”  Pamela has also had great success with the finishes that she learned during the class saying, “the work sells itself.  Many of my samples are the ones that I’ve learned from Kathy.  People see them and sign the contract on the spot.”

She says of working with Kathy Carroll “it’s great working with Kathy.  I can’t believe I found her.  She is very personable and knows me by name!  For her to be offering all of these products is amazing, she has a great business.”

For more information about Pamela Coslet and Vineyard Chic Kitchens she can be contacted by phone at 630-945-3030, by email at vineyardchic@comcast.net, or visit her website vineyardchickitchens.com.