Living Room Cabinets Re-Finished

We are finally done re-finishing the built-in cabinets in our living room. It really was not a big project, but with a baby and work commitments, it seemed to take weeks. The original cabinets (shown below) were in good shape, but the back walls of the cabinets needed a refresh, we wanted to get rid of the orange tone of the stain, and we wanted to get rid of the wooden shelves.

We already told you how we re-stained the cabinets and the doors. We also removed the old wallpaper and painted the back walls of the cabinets. We then ordered glass shelves and installed them to replace the old wooden shelves. We then re-installed the re-finished doors.

I think the finished product looks great, and some day we will fill those shelves with nice things (I don't know if we have any? haha). We still need to install baseboards, re-paint the room, and re-face the brick fireplace, and then we can take a true "after photo" of the living room.

Staining the Cabinet Doors

We have been slowly making progress on refinishing the built-in cabinets in the living room. I decided to dis-assemble the doors to refinish them, as I did not want to accidentally break the leaded glass during sanding. It took about 10 minutes to dis-assemble the four doors.

I then sanded (60, 80 and 120 grit), stained (oil-based) and finished (oil-based semi-gloss polyurethane) the wood pieces, which took about five hours spread out over four nights. The sanding was a bit faster with everything disassembled, and I did not have to tape off the glass when applying the stain/polyurethane. Once everything was dry, I re-assembled the cabinets with 18 gauge 3/4" finish nails, and filled the nail holes with wood putty to match the stain. This re-assembly process took about one televised hockey game (translation: 2.5 hours), including cleaning both sides of the glass.

All four doors are now waiting patiently to be re-installed.

Built-in Cabinets Stained

We got to work on the next phase of beautifying the fireplace in our living room. I spent most of last weekend sanding and staining the built-in cabinets. First, I had to remove the leaded glass doors and wood shelves (which will be replaced with glass shelves), and then add some extra support to the middle of the cabinets (the wood shelves were somewhat important to the structure, and glass shelves won't be able to play this same role). Most of the cabinets were sanded using 60, 80 and 120 grit sandpaper. The dentil moulding was too tight for the palm sander though, so I scraped off the old finish with a wood chisel and then tried to smooth it out as much as possible with sandpaper. I then applied the same stain and polyurethane that we used on the stairs.

Next up, we need to remove some old wallpaper and paint the back of the cabinets. We will then install glass shelves, install under cabinet lighting, and re-install the leaded glass doors.

Prep Work

Mackenzie helps dad get the sander ready for sanding the built in cabinets!