One good thing about sheltering in place — refinished all of my cabinets

I just completed my whole house cabinet remodel. After getting ridiculously high bids and timetables of more than 6 months, I decided to refinish them myself and order 124 new solid oak doors and drawer fronts. I thought I could get it done in 2-3 weeks working every day after work but I was wrong. It took almost 3 months to finish.

Stripping and sanding the cabinets was messy. Even with plastic tarps, dust infiltrated every room and nook and cranny in the house. Applying 3 coats of varathane on both sides of the doors and drawer fronts was exhausting. The dance studio became the new cabinet workshop where I spent weeks sanding and varathaning while listening to oldies.

I installed Blum soft-close hinges and learned to adjust them to create the perfect fit. Wow. These European hinges make cabinet installation a breeze for regular doors. But thinking that the hinges would work on all of my doors was a mistake. I ran into problems with odd shaped cabinets, toothbrush drawers, and narrow spice shelves.

My friends helped me with difficult stages. Mario let me borrow his special sanders, plastic room poles, and cool saws. He also built the cabinet table tops. Spencer helped strip the cabinet bases and sanded the moldings. He figured out how to adjust the hinges and even wrote instructions for me. Couldn’t have done this without them.

I love the way the new cabinets lighten each room. Don’t think I’ll ever refinish cabinets again, but it was well worth all the effort.