Refinishing our Kitchen Cabinets - Day 18

SPF is a rock star.  He finished up the stripping and sanding of the drawer fronts and the cabinet face so that I could start staining.  T minus 6 days and counting.  I need to get these drawers done so that we can put all that stuff back in the drawers in the kitchen so that we don't need to move it when the demo starts.  (It's hard enough fining a spoon on the buffet behind the dining room table.  I don't want to have to go out to the garage to get a spoon.  And then a new one when the kids drop the old one in the cat litter.)

So, drawers are a priority.  The good news is, on my To Do list of my five current jobs (I'm not exaggerating, but they are all part time) I don't have any deliverables due until August 11.  That doesn't mean I don't have to work until then, but I don't have any deliverables, which means that I can get to staining.

This is the first coat of stain on the cabinet face.  It isn't the most attractive image of my midsection, but I love it because of the blurred motion.  Turns out this was late at night after we had put the kids to bed.  I'm getting nervous about the floor project.

This is actually me talking to a student of mine who stopped by to pick up some photo equipment she needs for a project.  I told her the caviot to me lending her the equipment was that she keep it until the floor project was done!  Yet another thing off the floor (many things, actually, expensive things that I don't want to keep in the garage) and in good hands.  And being used, which will certainly make them happy as well.

 Clearing off the unused stain.  Again, cool blurred motion.  And again, late at night.

Stopped action shot of clearing off the unused stain.  (Nice flash shadow, huh?)

Wow, lots of these.  SPF was running the camera and I don't normally get this many different angles on what I'm doing because I am usually using the tripod and a timer.  So this is nice.  Different angle on the cabinet face.

More cool blur images.  I ended up doing the whole cabinet face stain process before I started on the drawer fronts because of the interruption (not unwelcome) from the student picking up the equipment.  We chatted for a while and then I realized the stain had probably been sitting too long.  This way, the cabinet face will be the correct color and the drawers will have more time to sit.

First coat of stain on the newly stripped and sanded drawers.  They are so smooth.  SPF did an amazing job.

I wanted to coat these in a vertical position because it uses less stain and coats really evenly.  The only other surfaces I could do this way were the cabinet faces that we stripped and stained in place.  It's a good way to evenly distribute a moderate amount of product.  I really like this method.

Here is the drawer face after the stain has been removed.  It is a pretty light version of the red mahogany, so I will probably end up doing two more coats before they are done.  All the more reason to get started sooner.

Three of the other drawers, also pretty light.  I need to leave the stain on a bit longer so that it can soak in more thoroughly.  I, of course, want them to match the doors.