How to Refinish Kitchen Cabinets Ultimate Guide
Step 1
Removing the doors and drawer fronts
A. When we arrive to your home to begin the process, we start off by removing the hardware
on your existing cabinets (if your cabinets have any).
B. We then start numbering each door and drawer front to make the installation process much
faster and to make sure each piece goes right back where it was originally.
C. After removing the doors and drawer fronts,
we completely wrap them to avoid any dents
or damage during transport to our shop.


Step 2
First day in the shop/preparing the surface
A. When we arrive at the workshop with the doors and drawer fronts, we start off by cleaning
them with a mild soap and warm water to remove any grease or dirt that may have built up
over the years.
B. After the cabinets and drawer fronts are clean, we start sanding each piece one at a time to
catch anything left behind during the cleaning process.
Step 3
Staining the doors and drawer fronts
A. Each piece is done by hand one at a time so the final result comes out as perfect as can be.
We apply the stain with a brush along the edges first, then apply to the rest of the surface and
give it soft brushes to avoid any brush marks.
B. After every piece has the first coat of stain, we place them onto a rack where the stain soaks
into the wood to dry completely.
C. After the stain has dried the doors and drawer fronts are ready to be sprayed with a clear
vinyl coat (clear primer). Next, we proceed to applying a clear topcoat with our top of the line
industrial sprayer.


Step 4
Transporting the finished product back to your home
A. After 8hrs the doors and drawer fronts are fully dry and ready to be wrapped with foam.
This protects the newly refinished pieces from any potential damage and from moving around
during transportation.
Step 5
Prepping the bases and other areas
A. When we work on cabinet bases or frames, we start off by moving anything 2 inches away
from the frame to ensure everything around the area is properly prepared.
B. The next step is to start covering everything that’s around the area that will be stained or the areas that the clear coats might reach when spraying.
C. We close off areas with a plastic to keep dust and fumes from going into other rooms of your home.


Step 6
Staining the bases
Once we have everything covered, we start off with the same process that was used for the
doors and drawer fronts in our workshop.
A. We start off by cleaning the cabinet frames and bases with a mild soap and warm water to
remove any grease or dirt that may have built up over the years.
B. After the cabinet bases are clean, we start sanding each piece one at a time to catch anything
left behind during the cleaning process.
C. We apply the stain with a brush inside of the frame. Next, we apply the stain to the rest of
the frame and give it soft brush strokes to avoid any brush marks. We do this one section at the
time so the stain doesn’t dry before we can brush it.
D. After the stain has dried, the frames are ready to be sprayed with a clear vinyl coat (clear
primer). Next, we proceed to applying a clear topcoat with our top of the line industrial sprayer.
E. Once the frames are sprayed and the clear coat is dry, we start to remove the paper and
plastic that was put in place during the prep phase.
Step 7
Finishing up and installing
A. Last but not least, we install the door drawer fronts. We put every door and drawer front
back into place.
B. Once we hang up the doors, we level everything to ensure the correct height and distance
from each other. We then put cabinet dor and drawer harware/handles back on. If doors did not have handles and our client wants to add them, we can drill the necessary holes and install these new additions.
C. Our final step is adding plastic bumpers to the back of doors and drawer fronts so when the doors or drawers close its nice and quiet.
