Pamela Coslet started out finishing furniture as a hobby about 15 years ago.  When her home burned down three years ago, the house had to be completely rebuilt.   Together with her husband and business partner, Bill, the house was designed and rebuilt. They did most of the job themselves with some help from subcontractors. Bill acted as the Builder. Pamela was the interior Designer and also selected and purchased all of the materials to build the house from the stone and siding on the outside to the light fixtures, paint and appliances on the inside.  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 supervises the spraying of the lacquers and provides custom work such as islands and smaller remodels, while I supervise 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. 

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.