One Room Challenge Week 2

We are off to the races with the One Room Challenge. It has been so fun to connect with other accounts that are participating as well. I am constantly amazed at the talent and creativity all over this community.

We are continuing to work on our master bathroom makeover and this week, I want to talk about refinishing cabinets. This is by far the biggest job of this whole makeover. The cabinets were stained with a very dark gel stain and I wanted them very close to a natural finish. I will not say this process is easy, but I will say it is totally worth it. 












Let's talk about the materials and steps.
For materials (You can access them all here):  - orbital sander with 80 and 220 grit sand paper  - Krud Kutter  - Citri Strip furniture stripper  - Scraping tool  - Zinser Wood bleach kit  - Driftwood stain  - Whitewood stain  - Polycrylic sealer

*Special note about each of these steps, I did each one twice. I repeated each step before moving to the next one. 
Step 1: Clean cabinet surfaces with Krud Kutter. This will help the sander move over the wood better in the next step.
Step 2: Sand with Orbital Sander using 80 grit sandpaper

Step 3 - Time to Strip the wood. I applied Citristrip with a roller brush and then covered it in plastic so the stripper could work into the wood before drying out.

 Step 4: After at least 30 minutes, you can scrape off the stripper. Scrape in the direction of the wood grain.

Step 5: Spray Krud Kutter or stripper remover to get all of the excess stripper off the wood before the next step.

Step 6: Bleaching the wood. This is a two step process. Apply A with a sponge, wait 5 minutes, then apply B with a separate sponge. Wait 24 hours and then repeat.

Step 7: Staining. To get the finish I was going for, I did a multi step staining process. First, apply prestain, then driftwood stain, finish with pickled oak/sunbleached layer and then polycrylic to seal them. Apply with a brush or an old t-shirt and wipe away excess.

The final product! It is perfectly aged and reclaimed looking wood now. Like I warned you...it was not an easy process, but the results make it all worth it! These cabinets are awaiting new brass hardware and then we can them new and improved!