Transforming Cabinets

The listing for our home was probably online for 5 minutes before I began receiving texts from family members about it. We had been actively looking for a forever home back in Wabash County for a while, and let me tell you what—those were hard to come by!

But here it was—a house with seemingly everything we wanted and more. However, the kitchen cabinets were the one thing in the listing photos that churned my stomach. There were a lot of them (i.e., they were crazy expensive to replace), and my design eye just could not think of a way to make them work.

24 hours later, we had an accepted offer on the house, along with a massively longer list than just kitchen cabinets that needed fixing/replacing/updating.

This house was going to be hard work. So, the ugly kitchen cabinets were pushed a ways down on the to-do list, and they became the backdrop of life for a few years - always there calling out to me to make them pretty.

Then, their time finally came. I settled in for a multi-month renovation. The plan was to strip down the doors and base, then paint with my secret weapon of furniture revamping—Valspar Furniture and Cabinet paint. Handles would also be added.

To test my process, I removed about six doors and utilized a beautiful fall day to power sand them outside. I placed them on a large cloth canvas in the yard, sanded all the protective coating off... and then forgot about them for about four days.

Now, why did I forget about them? My simplest explanation is that my brain was not functioning well. While trying to maintain everyday life, I was walking through an immensely dark season of life. Somedays, the emotions and mental battles were all my brain could hold... if that. So, for whatever reason, that particular week, my brain completely forgot about the very expensive and unprotected wooden cabinet doors lying on a cloth canvas in my yard, soaking in each morning's dew.

Panic set in the moment I discovered them.

Warped. Moldy. Splitting apart. They were ruined.

A quick Google search revealed the cost of replacing them. I had committed a $1000+ mistake.

My inner critic pounded with a vengeance, and I lost control. I cried and screamed and convulsed.

Have you ever had one of those moments when your emotions seem to be about a surface-level issue but are actually about a much deeper issue?

These cabinet doors symbolized my life. They were utterly ruined, and I was powerless to repair them, left to face the enormous consequences of their destruction.

I want to say I got over it and made a new plan, but that was not the case. I was so upset with myself that my partner had to step in and find a solution. In the meantime, our kitchen was torn apart, so the project had to keep going.

Although time-consuming, the remaining steps proceeded as planned, and the finished product was of high quality.

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The Process

POWER SAND

If you learn anything from my home reno blog, let it be the importance of sanding. Every inch of these cabinets had to be thoroughly sanded to remove the smooth finish coating.

To contain the mess, Grant and I made a tent out of tarps to block off the kitchen from the rest of the house. It took time, but it was well worth the effort.

All sanding was performed using orbital sanders with 120-grit sandpaper, followed by 220-grit sandpaper. Near the end of the project, I tried to cut corners and skipped the 220 step. Once painted, I greatly regretted that decision. Don't skip the fine finish!

CLEAN WELL

Once the dust had settled, literally, we used a combination of shop vac and dry and damp clothes to clear every speck away.

DRILL HOLES

I forgot to get a photo of this one, but Grant used a piece of wood with two drilled holes to create a template for drilling all other holes on the cabinets. This made our lives way easier while creating consistently spaced cabinet pull holes.

PRIME & PAINT

My secret to furniture refurbishing is basic primer and Valspar Furniture and Cabinet paint, applied with synthetic bristle brushes and thin-nap rollers. It works like a dream!

ADD HARDWARE

With the holes already drilled, adding on the black pulls was easy and satisfying.

HANG

Hanging cabinet doors should be easy, but it never seems to go that smoothly. We installed new soft-close hinges first, and then struggled with a level and our eyes to get them straight. It's a process.

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With so many doors to renovate, I worked in sections. As the completed sections were hung, the spots of the ruined doors were the only ones left, and the cabinets became a billboard for my awful mistake.

Grant found a relatively inexpensive cabinet door dealer who provided a few replacements. However, none would work for one section.

The ruined doors lay in a pile in the garage. Grant's solution was to try to resurrect them. I told him it would not work. He told me I might be correct, but it was worth trying.

Sometimes, life feels too broken, the pain is too bad, and healing seems impossible. Try anyway.

Variations of wood glue and clamps took weeks, but eventually, the split parts came back together, at least maybe close enough.

Weights and pressure were applied to the warped sections, and after a few more weeks, they seemed to straighten out, at least maybe close enough.

The power sander went to work on the moldy parts, removing the rotten wood and smoothing the area to match the surrounding parts. It seemed to clear, at least maybe close enough.

The white paint helped hide the imperfections, at least maybe close enough.

But the true test would come when the doors were hung. Would they still do what they were designed to do? Or was the damage truly beyond repair?

I am still healing from my dark season. I am still working toward fixing what once felt beyond repair. It often has felt like clamps are squeezing my heart back together or a power sander is digging out the rotten lies in my mind. It's hard, and sometimes it feels pointless and impossible.

As I prepare to make coffee each morning, I open the cabinet doors I once thought were beyond repair. From a distance, you would never know anything was wrong with them. Up close, you can see the effects of inflicted damage. Honestly, they open a little wonky. But they open, and they close.

We live in a culture that tells us to seek happiness and comfort. If something is broken, we are told to throw it away and buy new or start fresh. Healing and fixing are too much work.

Do the work. Fix your cabinet door. Don't throw it away. Don't give up on it. I'm right there with you. We might not work quite the same again, but we can still do what we were designed to do. We can still be beautiful, too.