Great finishers are artists and chemists Washington DC

These days, if you don't have a niche, you may be in a pinch. A couple of colleagues and I recently visited a nearby high-end custom cabinet shop. As is true in most custom operations, this company offers any type of finish, color or style the customer wants, whether it's traditional, rustic, high gloss — or something way outside the box. That's their niche and they're sticking to it.

Having been in business for more than 25 years, the company, Hensen Fine Cabinetry in Sun Prairie, Wis., has established a reputation as a quality manufacturer that will go the extra mile — or farther — to make sure the customers' needs are met in every capacity, and particularly the finish on their products.

While this second-generation company outsources most of its cabinet doors, most finishing is done in-house. That means color and style matching is critical, particularly with those more exotic stains, dies and one-of-a-kind coatings.

"We get requests for just about anything imaginable," one of the owners, Jennifer Kurtz, told us. "Whether it's the stressed wood look or a color that is way outside the norm, we'll come up with just the right finish and look. Sometimes we'll just have a small color swatch or example to work with. And, of course, people can change their minds."

Her brother, Jeff Hensen, explained that besides the coatings themselves, one of the keys to their finishing success is the Volumatic mixing machine the company uses. The machine can dispense as little as 1/64 of an ounce in volume of a pigment. Even the smallest amount of pigment can change the color, Jeff said.

"We used to go to the paint stores to have our coatings mixed, but that often involved only oil-based pigments. The stains got so loaded up with pigment that it obscured the wood grain," he explained. "Now, we have all the pigments in-house. We use either a clear base for our darker tints or a white for the pastels."

The Italian-made polyurethane topcoat is fast dry — "sometimes thinners are added" — and extremely chemical- and scratch-resistant, he said, adding that he can mix and match just about any color and still get that "silky smooth" look, if that's what the customer wants. Also, acrylic and glaze options are also available.

Because a good share of Hensen's business is remodeling, the company is often asked to match the finish on an old furniture or cabinet piece that may have faded over the years.

"We use an 'aging dye' to match the fading or amber tint we often find," Hensen explained. "The funkier the better. We're willing to tackle about anything."

Now that's a niche.