Refinishing Our Kitchen Cabinets - Day 4

We have been doing a lot of experimentation with this cabinetry refinishing project. One of the main issues that we want to address is the final finish of the cabinetry. We don't want it to be too glossy, because then the whole kitchen would basically be mirrored. But we can't have it be too matte either because it is a kitchen and matte will more easily show grease splatter, stains, and trouble.

So, I bought a book. My grandfather always used to say that if you wanted to learn how to do something right, you should get a book and read about it. The book described trouble shooting ways to get rid of some of the issues that we were seeing, namely bubbles in the finish, thickness of the finish, and the final look that we were after.

So I am now mixing my own finish.

It's awesome. (Not because I made it, but because it works to fit all of our needs.)


At this point it is important that I start stripping and sanding the cabinet boxes as well as the doors. There are two places where the doors go all the way down to the ground, so those boxes have now been stripped, sanded, and prepped for stain.


This is how the stain looks on the stripped and sanded wood. You can see the unstripped side of the box (to the right) and see how different the colors really are. Keep in mind that this is only the first coat of the stain, so it is actually much darker in practice.


First coat on the cabinet box for the HVAC is done!