Do-it-Yourself With Fabulous Finishes Retail Studio

There's no need to pay for labor at Shelby Township's Fabulous Finishes Retail Studio.

Patty Henning offers Paint a Piece workshops where you can paint furniture with instruction.

Henning recently submitted information about the business through the Small Business Spotlight.

Here are his answers.

What does your business offer? 

We offer several paint lines that are on the market now to make painting furniture, cabinets, and accessories easy and affordable. There is no sanding, striping or priming required - and the process is easy enough for homeowners to truly do their own work, thus cutting out the biggest cost of hiring out the job - the labor. You can refinish your kitchen cabinets for $200-300, its just YOUR time required. The paints are varied, I mix it up and offer many other finishes to give customers a variety of cool choices - my faux finishing background has helped me with that creative edge - from reptile textures, to copper finishes, metallics, raised plaster stencils, glazes, waxes - you name it. We also offer weekly workshops where customers can come for the night and paint their own piece of furniture while we instruct them. We also offer custom painting, for those clients that have no desire to paint their own piece, and lastly, our front showroom offers many custom hand-painted furniture and accessory items available for purchase.

What's your most popular product or service? 

Our Paint a Piece workshops sell out regularly, its a fun night out (4 hours) and you can arrive with a funky old nightstand and leave with a fabulous new finish!

Our metallic silver finish is quite sought after as well... a lovely timeless finish

What's a fact about your business that most customers probably don't know?

That my degree is in computer science :)

When was the business founded?

I started Fabulous Finishes in 2004 as a home based business, offering faux finishing services to residential and commercial clients in the Metro Detroit Area. In September of 2011 I opened my first retail location on Van Dyke in Shelby Township. My retail studio offered DIY paints, DIY paint classes, custom painting services and furniture/accessories available for purchase. I moved my store/studio to a larger location in February of 2013 - in the Salvation Army plaza on Van Dyke at 23 Mile Road.

How did your business come to be? 

I was doing custom faux paint finishes for clients, and loving the freedom as a stay-at-home mom - I worked when I wanted to, loved the creative aspect, and it brought home a side income. In 2008 I was turned on to some new products, created for the DIY market - the paints required no sanding, stripping, or priming of an existing piece (think old dresser, chest, table, chair, kitchen or bath cabinets...) - you simply had to wash your surface and begin painting. I continued my faux business but also started teaching DIY workshops from my basement, and at local adult ed communities (Grosse Pte War Memorial, Rochester, Macomb). In 2011 my husband lost his job of 32 years, and my job became a necessity. We chose to open a store front - started at a small store with no visibility from Van Dyke, with low rent and no long term lease commitment, in hopes that we could reach a broader audience. We did that, and within a year I had outgrown the space.

Why did you choose the area you did?

We have lived in Shelby Twp since 2000, my kids were in school still, and I wanted to be close enough in case I had to tend to their needs. I also didn't want a long commute to and from my store, so I wanted it close to where we lived. Most importantly, I knew that our area had the clientele my business catered to - alot of older homes with tired cabinets, and newer homes that were purchased when real estate was high (like us- we bought a $632k house and when we lost everything had to sell it when market was low - for less than $400...) - people arent interested in spending tens and tens of thousands into a home they've already over paid for - but they STILL want to have their surroundings nice, and updated.... so I knew Shelby Twp would be a good fit, and even more so, the surrounding communities.

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