What if your kitchen cabinet refinishing are dated, worn, and not of great quality? Before you send out your chipped, broken or outdated cabinet into retirement, remember that there is always one last route to take which is refinishing. You can strip and paint them and they’ll probably last a couple of years until you can afford to install new cabinets. If your cabinets are in decent shape and just need a little facelift, staining is probably the best way to go.
Refinishing kitchen cabinets professionally is a bit more complicated than painting or staining the cabinet in place over a certain period of hours. Done well, cabinet refinishing is a painstaking process that’s aided by the removal and deep cleaning of the cabinet.
Equipment or tool needed for kitchen cabinet refinishing
- Sander
- High-quality paint spray machine
- Tack cloth
- Power tool (Cordless drill)
- Latex glove
- Eye, hearing and breathing protection
Simple steps to kitchen cabinet refinishing
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Reface Sides, Drawers and Doors with Veneer and Stain
Start by removing the cabinet doors, drawers and all hardware. Flat-front doors and drawers are easily refaced. It’s not necessary to sand off all the old finish, just rough it up so the new wood veneer will adhere properly. You can save time on this step by using matching wood veneer tape on the door edges; veneer tape is easily applied using a hot clothes iron to activate the pre-glued backing. Fill all brad holes with wood putty coloured to match your intended stain colour. Let it dry and sand lightly to remove excess. Use a sanding block to evenly distribute pressure and avoid gouges and indentations.
2. Stain Cabinet Interiors
When all of the cabinets are ready for stain, use a paintbrush or rag to stain the inside edges and openings first, then the sides, and finally the cabinet fronts. This allows you to work quickly in the less critical areas and lets you see and correct any drips or smudges on the most visible areas. Apply a generous coat of stain, wipe away the excess and allow to dry. Next, stain the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, along with any separate wood pieces or mouldings. If these parts have raised or routed features, use a paintbrush to flow the stain into crevices and corners but don’t allow it to accumulate in these spots.
3. Finish Cabinets
Kitchen cabinets take lots of punishment from cooking heat and steam, grease spatters, cleanup splashes and day-to-day use, so the wood surfaces need all the protection they can get. Three coats of polyurethane will do the job. Water-based polyurethane is a good choice because it’s relatively odour-free, “flattens” better than oil or alkyd urethanes
and dries fast, allowing you to put on all three coats in a day. Use a brush recommended for the finish you choose and apply the first coat. Always brush in the same direction as the wood grain or pattern. Don’t lay the finish on thickly, and don’t overwork the brush — too many brush strokes will cause air bubbles in the finish, leaving bumps and pits when it dries.
4. Reassemble the Cabinets
Install the door hinges first. Position each hinge one hinge-length from the bottom and the top of the door (use the hinge itself to mark the location by lining it up with the door edge and marking the wood at its opposite end). When you bore the screw holes use a self-centring drill bit, which aligns itself in the hardware screw hole and sets the right depth so you won’t drill through the door.
7 Huge Mistakes to Avoid When Painting Kitchen Cabinets During Refinishing
1. No proper cleaning before painting
when you add water-based paint to an oil-covered door, the paint won’t stick. A paint-prep degreaser called TSP is recommended for use and a non-scratch delicate scrub sponge for stuck-on spots.
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Not removing the cabinet and hardware.
This is a crucial first step: Take all the doors off, pull the drawers out and remove the hardware knobs and hinges. Some people try to save time by painting everything, hinges and all while they’re still in place. Your cabinets and hardware will start to chip and show signs of wear within a month or even immediately, once the paint on the hinges starts to crack, all you can do is sand everything down and soak the hardware to remove the paint, so avoid such predicament.
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Skipping the labelling process.
Because what once was hung up will need to go back in the same place, it’s worth using numbered labels to help you remember where everything goes. A piece of masking tape stuck to the back of each piece with the exact location of where it was removed from will do just fine.
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Skipping the sanding process
Even if your cabinets are in near-perfect condition, you still have to sand them so the paint will stick.
5. Not elevating the cabinet before painting.
The risk of missing the edges and corner when the cabinet is not raised before painting is inevitable. Elevate the doors a little bit so that brushes can be maneuver easily around them. Be patient enough to allow the paint on the surface to cure totally before flipping over to avoid smudges of the paint.
6. Not applying a paint primer.
It’s tempting to skip this step but remember that not using a primer gives room for blotches as the paint cures.
7. Hurried finishing.
Hurrying to return the cabinets to place without patiently waiting for the paint to cure absolutely will eventually cause the paint to smudge and that means starting the whole refinishing all over again.
Should You Refinish or Replace Your Kitchen Cabinets?
If you’re tired of your kitchen cabinets and ready for a change, you have an important decision to make: refinish or replace? To help figure out the best choice for your kitchen here is a professional view of each option
Cabinets play an important role in the kitchen and occupy much of its real estate, going a long way toward defining both the appearance and functionality of the room, they make or break the kitchen, updating the cabinets can be a cost-effective way to achieve high-impact results without the high cost and inconvenience of a major renovation. As many consider the kitchen to be the heart of the home, updating its look and feel often ranks high on homeowners’ to-do lists. The hassle and expense of gut renovation, however, can stand in the way. Homeowners in search of a new look for their cabinetry typically weigh two options: cabinet replacement, which involves the application of new doors and drawer fronts, or cabinet refinishing. Refinishing is the less invasive (and less expensive) of the two options, but despite its higher price tag, replacement makes the most sense in certain situations.
In conclusion
All one kitchen is a group of professional highly skilled in the area of cabinet installation, cabinet refinishing, cabinet top-up, kitchen renovation and cabinet repair with a 5-year warranty on all their services. All one kitchen has been delivering maximum satisfaction to her customers over the past fifteen years through the use of spray paint top finish that distinguished them and thereby allows high end finishing to be obtained in the services.
Check more customer reviews, and 5-star ratings via our website https://all1kitchen.com
You can also check out how we’ve brought to our customer’s their dream kitchen cabinet refinishing to reality on our YouTube channel “All One Kitchen”.
