DIY: Cabinet Project

Think you are stuck with an ugly cabinet because you have not doe?  Think again.

In my master bedroom, well throughout our new house, we have some ugly cabinets.  They were probably hot when they were built, but that was in the 70's.  I don't want to replace the cabinet just yet.  But I am tired of the tired looking stain on the cabinets.  So to give it a face lift, I re-stained the cabinets with a darker stain.  You could do any stain, or paint and you would only need to follow the same steps but just use your preference in color.  Here are the before, after and steps that I followed for the quick easy fix:

Step one:  Identify the ugliness!!

Step two: Take off the doors and hardware (no pics of this one, kinda self explanatory)

Step three: Sand away the ugliness.  Best to use an orbital hand sander.  You can do it by hand, but it will take a lot of elbow grease and time.  Start with sand paper at 80 grit.  At this stage you can sand in any direction.  That will take off the old finish.  Work up to 150 next (start sanding with the grain).  If you want your stain to be dark, end here.  The wood will be more open to the stain.  If you want a lighter stain, work them up to 220.

Step four: Clean & stain.  Clean off all dusk with acetone and a fine cloth.  This will get even the smallest particles up as well as dry quickly.  If you don't have acetone, use Windex or a product like it.  Then add the stain.  Use a sponge for a soft cloth for this as well.  Run in the direction of the grain as well.  This will help the stain go on evenly.  If you have excess on your wood, wipe off.  Left dry for at least 8 hours.  If it isn't dark enough, add another coat until you reach the desired color.  You have finish with polyurethane for added protection.  For a bathroom, which has a lot of moisture, this is a good idea.

Step five: Re-assemble and enjoy!!

 Now you can do whatever you want with the hardware.  Re-use old, buy new.  I didn't want to buy anything new because I wanted to keep this project very cheap.  But I didn't want the old gold hardware either.  I didn't have the exact paint that I wanted either, so I just took some black paint and sponged it over the hardware.  This changed the tone and made it look a little warn.