Closet Cabinet Makeover Before and After

I was so excited today to get started on my closet after writing about it yesterday. I was going to paint the walls first but I needed a trip to Home Depot for that and I new that I already had everything here to refinish the cabinet in the closet, so I started there. I have a turquoise color that I have used before called Gulf Winds from Behr. You might have seen it on my kitchen island redo post. I thought it would be perfect so I got started.

This is the cabinet before. You can't really tell from this picture but the top had drink rings and it was a little beat up and not in a good way.

I started out by sanding the entire piece. I used medium grit sand paper. For a really good finish, you can start with that and then go back over with a more fine grit but I like things a little rustic anyway. I just need the paint to stick so I feel like it's a waste of time to go that extra step. You'll need to wipe down everything after sanding to get off all of the dust before you start to paint.

Next I painted. I left some of the brown stain showing through to give more of an aged feel to the piece. When you do this make sure you are painting in the direction of the wood grain.

To give even more of an antique feel, I went over the paint with a gel stain. You need to use a bristle brush here. See how it gives the look of a grainy texture? Gel stain is better than regular stain because it is thicker and easier to work with on a vertical surface. I used a maple stain because that's what I had on hand but aged oak would be nice too.

I decided at the last minute that I wanted to use different hardware. The hardware that I had, however, did not fit in the predrilled holes, so I had to fill one hole and put the new hardware covering the other hole as that hole was to big for my screws. This would have been much easier if I had decided to do this BEFORE painting it the first time because I had to get all of the paint and stain back out to patch the hole. Ugh!!!

This is how the drawers turned out. I kept the old hardware for the cabinet doors (below) for now but that could change later. We'll see. Nothing is ever set in stone with me.



The before and after. I can't wait to accessorize it! One project down...a dozen to go!