Refinishing Our Kitchen Cabinets - Day 3

Even though I have trouble finding the time to write about our progress, I assure you that it continues on a nearly daily basis. I am trying my best to document the progress both in images and words to share with you.

After the first group of cabinets was stained, I started the process of applying the requisite three coats of polyurethane that are necessary to protect the cabinets from the hazards of the kitchen - grimy fingers, splattering oils and sauces, or the inevitable cookie dough slinging off of a beater as it is too hastily removed from the mixing bowl.

This polyurethane is straight from the can Satin finish. We applied semi-gloss on the back of the tester door and weren't happy with how reflective it was, so we opted instead for the satin. It is still a little bit too shiny for our tastes, but bear in mind that we have not yet completed the finish, this is just another stage.


As we also determined that, to lay the tile in the office and the kitchen, we needed to finish the cabinet boxes as soon as possible in the two places that the boxes go down to the floor, I started to strip the boxes and begin the refinishing process in a vertical manner while the polyurethane of the previous step was curing.

You can see in this image a stripped cabinet door leaning against the as of yet unstripped cabinet box. You see where the cat is poking her nose that particular part of the cabinet comes into contact with the floor, so, to protect the future tile, the stripper, stain, and clear coat will all be applied prior to floor installation. As for the other cabinets, they can be refinished with the use of a canvas drop cloth on top of a plastic sheeting. (The stripper has an unsettling way of eating through just the plastic, so I'd rather double up on these.)


As I am not stripping all of the boxes at one time, but rather just the two areas that come into contact with the floor, I stripped beyond the boundaries of the area that I am going to refinish to ensure that when I come back and strip these areas in the future, I won't accidentally go too far and strip my new stained and finished areas. It may seem like a better idea to finish the boxes all at once, but so long as I have a defining edge where I can stop the stripper, stain, and clear coat, I can do them in stages. I would need a solid block of time to strip them all at once, and I just don't have that at the moment.


This is sort of awkward lighting, but you can kind of see the stripper starting to work on the front piece and side piece of the box, though only the front piece will be stained in this go around. The other piece will have to wait until that particular box set is stripped at a later time.


I still think we can handle this. We haven't run into anything yet that we haven't conquered, though the fumes are something to behold. Don't worry, we are taking all necessary safety precautions. Which I am particularly happy about at the moment, as my safety goggles have a drip of stripped plastic down the middle of the left lens. I could be a fancy scarred pirate lady now, but I think I prefer my photographer's eyes.

Tips of the day: ventilate, cover your fleshy parts, honest-to-god safety goggles, protective gloves, and a fume mask. Done.