Bathroom Cabinet Remodel
You may recall a year ago that we remodeled Melody's bathroom. We wanted what was the guest bathroom to feel more like something she would enjoy. Because we were on a time crunch with her birthday party, we didn't do anything to the cabinet work. We left it the cherry it was before. Well I have always hated that. I felt like it didn't really work with everything else in that bathroom. So about two months ago I finally got the initiative to redo the cabinets. I knew this was a small enough project that I should be able to complete it myself. Check it out below.
The first decision was picking a color. We wanted to generally do white, so I went to Lowe's and bought lots of samples. We didn't want it to clash with the white trim, and we wanted it to look good against the blue walls.
Once we picked the colors, it was time to take a few before pictures.
Next up I cleaned out our cabinets. I have seen where some people leave everything in theirs, but that really didn't make much sense to me. Once I started sanding them, I noticed they got really dusty inside.
Next I removed all three doors.
I removed what hinges I could and the knobs. Some of the hinges would not come off, so I just left them on and tried to be somewhat careful around them. It really wasn't worth fighting to remove and risk messing up the door. I was sure to place each doors' hinges and knob in its own ziploc bag. I labeled each bag with a number and also labeled each door. Then I labeled each cabinet space too with which door went there. This wasn't quite a necessity because only certain doors would work in each space, but it was more of a precaution. In addition I removed the toilet paper holder that was attached to the outside of the cabinet. Basically anything you can remove from the cabinet, remove!
Now I needed to clean the cabinets with just soap and water. I cleaned the inside too, but this was irrelevant after the sanding I eventually did.
After everything was cleaned, I covered the counters, toilet, and floor with sheets (you could use tarps or anything else that would protect it). Since I was fixing to start sanding, I also brought in the air purifier. Then I started to sand. I just wanted to remove the shine and gloss. I didn't care to remove the finish itself. Once I finished sanding, I wiped everything down again to prep for painting.
And now it's time to paint! I bought stands from Lowe's for the cabinets to sit own while I painted. In the bathroom I was sure to use painter's tape around the wall to prevent painting my semi-newly painted walls white! And then the first coat went on! I used a roller for the big areas and a bristle brush for the fine details. I did change this up for the second and third coat because I didn't like the look of the bristle next to the sponge. I painted one side of the cabinets; then I went inside and painted the cabinets themselves; then I painted the other side of the cabinets. The stands I bought claim you can paint both sides even while the other sides dry...
FYI - it didn't work! It actually scratched off the paint! So the future coats, I waited until one side was dry before flipping it.
And I won't bore you with all the details of each coat, but I ultimately did three coats of paint. You can see the progress pictures below. I would paint a coat early in the morning. That evening I did a second coat. I did the same thing the next day to continue the cabinet process since it took a bit longer since I had to wait for one side to dry before flipping to do another coat.
I waited about three days to make sure everything was entirely dry before removing the tape. I cleaned up all of the mess I made in the bathroom before re-attaching the doors.
The last step I did was re-attach the doors! I absolutely loved how it turned out. It isn't perfect by any means, but it looks great to us. The only thing that bothered me was that it was really sticky at first, but it has been about two months, and I no longer notice any stickiness. And we even found an adorable step stool for Melody to use while brushing/flossing her teeth that matches the bathroom perfectly!
