How to Remodel Old Kitchen Cabinets
If your kitchen cabinets are showing their age and look more like something out of a historical digest rather than a modern space, you can remodel them to give them a fresh, stylish look. With just a few materials, some imagination and a little elbow grease, your kitchen cabinets will go from drab to fabulous in a matter of hours. Best of all, you don't need to be a design guru. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Home living magazines
- Table or work bench
- Drop cloth
- Eye protection
- Dust mask
- Gloves
- New cabinet hardware
- Medium-grit sandpaper
- Fine-grit sandpaper
- Screwdriver
- Primer
- Stain or paint
- Polyurethane
- Paintbrush
Instructions
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Start by looking through home living and decor magazines. Look for pictures of kitchen cabinets that are to your liking and will compliment your overall kitchen space. Pay close attention to the color and the door hardware or handles and exposed hinges. Purchase new hardware and paint or stain that matches the pictures at a home improvement store.
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Unfasten your kitchen cabinet doors using a screwdriver. Take the door handle off with a screwdriver, and place the doors in a garage or shed on a table or work bench covered in a drop cloth.
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Open windows and/or the garage door. Put on eye protection, gloves and a dust mask. Sand the doors with medium-grit sandpaper to remove the old finish. Continue to sand until you come to the bare wood surface of the kitchen cabinet door.
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Sand the cabinet doors with fine-grit sandpaper once the bare surface is exposed, to smooth it for new finishing. Sand until completely smooth and free of any splinters. Dust off with a paintbrush.
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Apply a coat of clear primer to the sanded cabinet doors with a paintbrush. Let the primer dry according to the manufacturer's directions. Finish the cabinet doors with a stain of your choosing that mimics the color you saw in the magazine. Alternatively, you may paint the cabinet doors after sanding and priming them. Allow the paint to dry as long as recommended by the manufacturer.
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Apply a coat of polyurethane to the stained or painted doors with a brush. Let the polyurethane dry for at least one day before fastening on the new hardware.
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Attach new door handle hardware to the refinished cabinet with a screwdriver after the paint has completely dried. Be careful not to scratch the new finish when fastening the door handles to the cabinet doors. Hang the remodeled cabinet doors on the old hidden hinges, or replace the old, exposed hinges with new ones and then hang the cabinet doors.
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