How to Sand Your Kitchen Cabinets

Sand your way to new cabinets

If you are looking for an inexpensive way to give a new look to your kitchen, you can refinish your wood cabinets. Natural wood cabinets darkened with age, and you can brighten and restore them dramatically by sanding.

Things You'll Need

• Orbital or sheet sander
• Sandpaper
• Towel
• Polyurethane finish
• Paintbrush

Instructions

1. Remove the cabinet doors and all the hardware. Work on one small section at a time so you can easily return the right door to the right cabinet. Also keep the hardware for each door separate.

2. Using your orbital or sheet sander, start lightly sanding the doors and the cabinet exterior using a medium-grade sandpaper first. Move in the same direction as the grain. Start in a less visible section so you can adjust the grade of sand paper if necessary to get the job done, and to see if you're going to like the desired effect. Let your tools do the work. Do not push hard or you will gouge the wood.

3. After sanding off the old finish, brush the surface. With a fine grade sanding paper, sand until you have a nice, smooth finish.

4. Use a wet towel to clean off all the sawdust from your sanding.

5. When the cabinet surfaces are totally dry, brush on a layer of polyurethane.

6. Allow the polyurethane to dry completely before sanding with fine sandpaper again.

7. Reapply polyurethane. When dry, install the cabinet doors back in place.

Tips & Warnings

• First determine the quality of your wood -- if it's very low quality, you should probably not use this method.

• Adequately ventilate your work areas and use a dust mask when sanding indoors. When possible, move outside with your project.

References

• Simply Built Cabinets; Danny Proulx
• Kitchen Cabinets Made Simple; Gregory Paolini