A Project: Kitchen Cabinets

By Leslie Parks - Monday, February 04, 2019


Pinterest is both a blessing and a curse. There are so many ideas and projects - ways to get you to be dissatisfied with how things are. Well, it is that way with my kitchen.  I see every ding, carved mark, bubbled Formica, gouges in the floor of my kitchen. I thought long and hard and wished that my husband would allow me to renovate the kitchen. The answer always is no. However, there are certain kitchens I absolutely love and not because they are "in style" but because of the warmth and the memories made in them. So I started to search for what would provide more warmth in the kitchen. Yes, I would like to replace the countertops with quartz (not granite or marble or Formica) and I think that is in the future but the cupboards themselves are good. The doors are solid oak, albeit orange but they are in decent shape. So, with more searching, I decided they just needed some TLC. I found a product called Briwax and a blog post about updating kitchen cabinets with this product. I drove every place in town that showed they had this in stock with no luck. I then quickly ordered it and got to work. I watch video tutorial after video tutorial. I ordered buffing pads for our drill. It took forever. Everything I read and watched showed someone putting it one with a 0000 fine steel wool pad and then just easily buffing it after it dries with a rag. Yeah, that didn't happen here.  Hence the buffing pads for our drill, which didn't work either. IF there was any kind of grease or dirt on the cupboard, it showed with this wax. I cleaned the doors with dish soap and vinegar which worked great for the nongreasy cupboards but the ones with grease I really scrubbed and still that grease and dirt just hung on. More research and I found Murphy's Oil Soap. That did it. It took a couple of good scrubs but the grease came off. After many doors later I found that by working in small areas, always with the grain of the wood and wiping almost immediately after apply worked the best. I also did more than one coat since it tended to cover better.  Sometimes it still seems as if it is "dirty" but I'll take a rag and rub it a bit. The verdict is that I really like the way the wood looks with a reddish-brown color instead of a yellow-orange color. I also like how much easier it is to clean with a waxy finish. Also when I am venting my instapot the cabinets don't become discolored from the steam. Things just clean up easier. What I didn't like was the elbow grease that was required to complete this project. I also had to order two cans.  I had only the peninsula facing the school room to finish and I ran out of wax so I had to wait almost a month for the other can to arrive in the mail. 

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