Drape drop cloths to prevent drips from staining your floors.
Cabinet stripping and restaining.
It s one of my favorite things to do.
Unless you re replacing the hardware cleaning it will help give your cabinets a fresher look.
This can reveal divots and deep scratches which will need to be filled with a wood filler.
And the sanding and stripping are just not fun for me.
Soak the hardware in a soapy water solution for 30 minutes scrub lightly with a soft brush rinse let dry and apply polish.
Using painter s tape i prefer frogtape tape off wall and floor surfaces where you do not want stain.
This is the same process for prepping cabinets to paint.
Wipe cabinets with deglosser.
Next scrape the old surface with a scraper in the direction of the grain.
Okay so let s talk about how to restain wood without stripping.
You will need to clean off and remove years worth of residue oils and grime in order to fully prepare the cabinet surface for stain.
Allow cabinets to dry in dust free environment.
If you want to take your cabinets to a lighter tone for example staining oak cabinets gray or giving them a stylish bleached look there is unfortunately no quick and easy option.
Clean the cabinet hardware.
Use a bristle attachment on a vacuum to remove all of the dust.
Lol i hate sanding and prepping.
Apply gel stripper with a paintbrush to one or two cabinet door sets at a time any more and the gel will dry out.
Follow the instructions on the stripping agent to remove that first layer of tacky finish.
I mean who likes doing that.
Lightly scuff the clean dried existing finish with a synthetic sanding pad or 220 grit sandpaper.
If the cabinets have a waxy or thick finish then house beautiful recommends apply a stripping agent such as turpentine over the surfaces.
To achieve those effects you ll need to commit to a full scale campaign of stripping sanding and refinishing from scratch.
Clean the existing finish with minwax wood cabinet cleaner to remove dirt and grime.
Let the gel sit for 10 minutes or so until you see that the surface has bubbled and softened.
I just want to get the fun part painting making beautiful etc.
Because i m a lazy crafter.