Maybe It's Just Me: Refinishing Kitchen Cabinets

After Christmas I decided I needed a project. What with cold weather and the pandemic we weren't out and about much. So I decided the kitchen needed to be repainted. I decided to go with the same color as the living room as the two rooms flow together. Put first there was wallpaper to be removed.

My husband took on the job of wallpaper removal, which was a great help. Since I was changing the color of the kitchen I of course needed to get new blinds. It was about time anyway as we had the green ones for over twenty years.

I ordered the blinds from American blinds and installed them myself. They are double cell pleated cordless which gives us better insulation then the old ones. The paint I used was Behr Marquee called Bay Scallop. As if removing wallpaper and painting wasn't enough I thought maybe I should redo the cabinets. This is when I should have had my head examined. It turned out to be a long process and a lot of work, but I'm glad I did it anyway. As you can see in the first photo the cabinets were a golden oak color. They were in good shape and made from solid wood, just a little out dated. So I turned to YouTube and watched several videos on cabinet refinishing. I discovered gel stain. Most people were using the color Java and doing the cabinets very dark. I knew I didn't want them super dark so I chose the color Hickory.

Rather then tear the whole kitchen apart I did it in sections. My husband would remove the doors, then I would sand them and the cabinet with 220 sandpaper. You need to make sure you remove all the dust before staining. I used a tack cloth and a hand held vacuum. Then wiped them with a damp sponge. The stain reminds me of pudding it is very thick. I applied it using a sponge brush. Then wiped it off to the shade I wanted. Make sure you use cloths made for this purpose as they are relatively lint free. I let everything sit for about 48 hours then I applied the clear coat finish. I used the Polyurethane satin on the cabinet part but wasn't happy with the way it looked on the doors so I used Tung Oil on them for a glossier look.

I didn't keep the best track of the number of hours it took me but my best estimate is about 50 hours. This was over a couple of months. The reason for this was because being winter I had to wait for a somewhat warm day to open the windows. The gel stain is oil based and has a strong smell. I also used a mask and gloves. The cabinets and drawers never had knobs or pulls, so I decided we should add those also. Placing the knobs wasn't too bad, just measure down 2 inches and find the center. I used painters tape on the door for marking the spot and protecting the wood. My husband drilled the holes using three different drill bit sizes. Starting with a small one and working up to the size to fit the screw. The drawer pulls were another matter. So back to YouTube, I found a video on how to best measure, Drawer pull layout. Because there are two holes they must be centered and level. This process gave me nightmares. I must have measured each drawer 10 times before I let my husband drill. But we did it and they came out beautiful.

The whole cabinet process cost about $240, this was all supplies and hardware. Although a lot of work it would have cost so much more for new cabinets.