I would love to say I started this project to inspire others, prove what women can do, and be a great role model for my children, but that would be a lie. While I have seen these things happen during this process, I have to admit that my number one goal was to save money. That is why I am so excited about this post! Refinishing the bathroom cabinets was the cheapest and easiest part of my remodel so far. In fact, I’m pretty sure anyone could do it. Let me walk you through the steps.
The Before Pictures
I don’t know why, but red/orange oak is one of my pet peeves. I can’t stand it.
And I had a ton of it. Here is my pet peeve in the toilet room…
I don’t know why I didn’t get a good picture of the main bathroom cabinets before, but you get the idea. I had a crap ton of oak cabinets.
I really wanted to get rid of them, but they were well made solid wood cabinets, and they just don’t make them like this anymore. So refinishing it is! I had never refinished cabinets and wanted to make sure they would look okay before starting the plans for the remodel, so this was actually the first project I did. Because of this, you will see the old stuff in the pictures, but rest assured I did not replace the carpet and wallpaper, they’re just old pictures!
Prepping the cabinets
Step 1: Remove the cabinet doors and drawers.
This includes removing the doors from the hinges, then the hinges from the cabinets.
Step 2: remove the old finish.
I am using a gel stain for the new finish and I have read that no sanding is required, however the instructions on the can said to remove the old finish, so that is what I did. It took about an hour and a half to sand all of the cabinets using a hand sander. Not too bad! However, without the hand sander, it would have taken a lot longer.
Step 3: clean the surfaces
You have to make sure all surfaces are clean and dust-free to ensure a smooth finish. First I vacuumed, then wiped the cabinets with a damp cloth.
Applying the stain
I used a gel stain for the new finish for a few reasons. First, it is thick with a pudding consistency which makes putting it on the vertical surfaces easier. Second, because of it’s thick consistency, it will cover the previous color a lot better.
Step 1: Using a foam brush, I apply the stain liberally to the surfaces.
Step 2: Wipe any excessive stain away with a lint-free cloth or a stain sponge. I used both and they work equally the same.
Step 3: Allow surfaces to dry completely before adding a second coat. This one is a biggie! I applied the second coat when it was still a bit tacky and the second layer took off portions of the first layer.
It took about 8 hours for the cabinets to dry and I am really bad at waiting. Lessons learned… when I waited for them to be completely dry, I didn’t have any more problems.
The doors, on the other hand, took 2 full days to dry. I was staining them in the garage and eventually ended up moving them inside so they would dry faster.
Here are the main bathroom cabinets with 2 coats of stain. Its the perfect dark finish I was going for! Time to finish these bad boys.
Adding a protective coat
When refinishing bathroom cabinets, you always want to make sure that the doors are durable and washable. A couple of coats of a clear polyurethane semigloss does just that.
At first I started with a wipe on poly that you just apply with a rag, however, it took large portions of the stain off. After removing the poly and re-staining, I came up with another plan.
I purchased a spray on poly that was super simple. Just spray the cabinets and doors, let dry completely, then use a second coat.
Here it is with the final coat of poly. Not too bad!
Adding cabinet hardware
The bathroom cabinets look great, but there is still something missing. Cabinet hardware is a quick and cheap way to update any space, so of course, I have to add it, and I ended up getting mine from Wayfair for a great deal. It can be hard to get the cabinet pulls uniform, and doing so takes a few extra steps. Weird…
Step 1: Making templates
I ended up having to make a number of different templates as I had a variety of door and drawer sizes. After measuring the drawer and door fronts, I created replicas on foam board.
Then using a straight edge and a utility knife, I cut out the templates.
Next, I marked the center of my board.
Here’s a handy trick I learned through my research. Using a washable marker, I marked the holes on the cabinet hardware.
Next, I pushed the cabinet hardware in the center point of the template.
And now I have perfect little circles where the holes will need to be!
The drawer pulls were a little different because of their shape. I had to find the center point of the pull and line it up with the center point of the template.
Once the templates were done, I was ready to start drilling.
Step 2: Drilling holes
From there, its pretty simple. You just line up the template with your door and drill the holes.
I repeated that process for all of the doors. It took a long time to make the template perfect, but it saved a lot of time and measuring in the long run.
Step 3: Attaching the hardware
The only thing left to do is attach the handles and pulls!
Overall I love how they turned out. On top of that, it was easy and cheap! In all, I spent about $30 on refinishing the bathroom cabinets and another $80 on the cabinet hardware. Can’t beat that! My bathroom is nearly finished, only a few more finishing touches left to do. I’ve got to start planning my next project. I have a lot to choose from… Anything you want to see? Let me know!
August 18, 2020 at 7:33 pm
Well done Handy Mandy😎