Essential Dos and Don'ts of Refinishing Your Kitchen Cabinets
Is it time to refinish your cabinets? Are you thinking of doing it on your own?
Don’t start until you see these essential dos and don’ts of refinishing your kitchen cabinets. Let’s get into it!
Do: Clean Your Cabinets Before Refinishing Them
It may seem silly to do all that cleaning before refinishing your kitchen cabinets, but it’s a critical step. If you don’t clean your cabinets before sanding them, the grease, dirt, and oil can cause the wood dust from sanding to gum up, damaging the wood (if you use too much pressure). Just a note: when you clean your cabinets, make sure they’re dry as a bone before moving on to the sanding process.
Don’t: Think This Is A Quick And Easy Project
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can refinish your cabinets in the afternoon. Refinishing cabinets isn’t quick and easy, like repainting a wall. There are dozens of different parts and multiple steps for each of them. So, if you plan on refinishing your own cabinets, plan for at least a week.
Do: Protect Your Countertops And Floors
If you’re refinishing your cabinets inside your home, you’ll need to protect the surrounding areas, meaning the floors and countertops. Even if you’re taking everything down and apart, sanding will spread dust everywhere, and refinishing treatments will stain your floors.
Don’t: Skip The Proper Surface Preparation
Cleaning your cabinets isn’t the only step you’ll need to take before refinishing your cabinets. Surface preparation is the most important step, besides the actual refinishing. You have to take everything back to the surface, remove the old finish, and sand the wood so it provides a smooth-as-glass base for your new finish to go on top of. Plus, this step is where any repairs are made, like nicks, scratches, and other cosmetic damage.
Do: Think Beyond White Cabinets
When you’re choosing a new color for your cabinets, think outside the box. White’s popular, yes, but only because it's easy. You have so many more options to help show your personality and embrace a whole new kitchen style. Take a look at some of the latest kitchen cabinet trends for some inspiration.
Don’t: Refinish Your Cabinets Before Remodeling Your Kitchen
Refinishing your cabinets should be the last step in your kitchen remodel. Kind of like the finishing touch. So, if you’re planning on a full kitchen redo, you might want to hold off on your cabinets for just a little white.
Do: Know When To Call The Pros
As we mentioned, refinishing your cabinets can be a tricky project to do on your own (and very time-consuming). By hiring the pros at Mint Cabinet Refinishing, not only will you save yourself the work and some time, you’ll also get flawless results to boot! Contact us today to learn more!
