Our Little Red House was built in the 1950s. The kitchen cabinets are original. I want to replace the cabinets under the counter, but I want to keep the cabinets above the counter and over the range. I’ll have to refinish them if I keep them but I have no experience whatsoever refinishing woodwork like this, so I’m trying to figure it out by refinishing the cabinets under the counter. If I can make them look good, then I’ll try refinishing the overhead cabinets.

I began this experiment by pulling the doors off the cabinets under the sink, sanding them clean, then applying three coats of a combination stain and sealer. I chose to sand them rather than strip them because although most of the wood still looked remarkably good after fifty-some years, the areas around the handles were badly dinged up and grungy-looking. By carefully sanding down to clear grain, then layering stain/sealer over the surface, I brought each door back to a satisfyingly good look.

The next most logical step was to stain and sand the face of the cabinets. Sanding would produce a lot of dust even with a vacuum attached to the sander and a fan in the window to keep the air moving. I didn’t want to clear the kitchen of every last appliance, pan, spatula & etc. so I hung a plastic sheet from the ceiling (first photo), cut away an opening to get at the cabinets, then taped the plastic to the counter top to keep the dust in. When everything was sealed up, I dragged the vacuum and the sander into the kitchen, plugged them in, and sanded the wood smooth.

This wooden face has taken quite a beating over the years and is very badly worn in spots. I didn’t get a great before photo but the wear and tear is evident on the drawers I haven’t refinished yet.