Lets Refinish this Sideboard

I picked up this old sideboard off of Facebook Marketplace. I think you will like how it turns out.

Materials and Tools Used for this Project

Krud Kutter
Vinegar
0000 Steel Wool
Bondo Wood Filler
SurfPrep 3”x4” Electric Ray Sander
Dewalt Orbital Sander
Graco TrueCoat 360 Variable Speed Sprayer
Zinsser Cover-Stain Oil-Base Primer
Sherwin-Williams Urethane Trim Enamel Origami White
General Finishes Gel Stain Java
Varathane Ultimate Polyurethane - Water Based
Dixie Bell Gilding Wax - Gold
Dixie Bell Big Mama’s Butta
Keenkee Double Roller Cabinet Catch Hardware

Preparation

So the first step was to remove all hardware and clean it up. I use Krud Kutter to clean all of my pieces. After getting it clean (or so I thought) I sanded the entire piece starting with my orbital sander and 80 grit sandpaper and worked my way up to 220 grit. I also used my SurfPrep to get into areas where the orbital sander couldn’t get to. I tend to use the orbital sander where I can because it offers a slightly bigger sanding surface.

The images above are obviously before I sanded but show some of the places that would need to be repaired. The inside was in bad shape and so I had to sand down the inside as well since it would also have to be redone. I used Bondo to repair all of the areas that needed to be filled in.

Only two shelves came with the sideboard and as it turns out, one of them was not an original shelf and didn’t even fit. And as you can see from the third image above, the shelves simply sat on screws thru the sides. I doubt that was the way it was originally built so I decided to replace the screws with wood shelf supports. I also had to cut two shelves. More work than I intended.

Bleed Through

I said earlier that I used Krud Kutter to clean the sideboard. Every time I wiped it down, it drew out more and more of the red color of this piece. After I had sanded it completely down, I did another pass with Krud Kutter and this is what I got. I now realize this is going to be a problem and need to prime with a good stain blocking primer. I posted in a related blog, Unintended Primer Review, the issues I had in finding a primer that worked on this piece.

Evolving Design

I have been in the software development business for most of my career, and when designing software, the design may go through several iterations until you arrive at the best design. I am finding it is no different with refinishing furniture. My initial design for this piece was to paint the piece in a blackish color and highlight the top and drawer in lighter stain. That design changed fairly quickly as I was not paying close enough attention when I was sanding and went through the veneer in a couple of places on the top. I experimented with using gel stain, but it still showed the difference between the exposed wood and the veneer. So any staining was out and I was going to have to paint the entire piece. So I did a 180 and decided to paint the piece in an off white and settled on using Sherwin-Williams Origami White in a satin sheen. To offset the white on the outside of the sideboard, I decided to use General Finishes Gel Stain Java for the inside.

I mentioned that I decided to reuse the original hardware. I soaked all of the pulls and hinges in hot vinegar and water and after they had soaked for a couple of hours, I used 0000 steel wool to clean them up

After the first pass of steel wool, they came out pretty good. To give them a little more shine, I used Dixie Bill Gilding Wax in a gold color. After the wax had dried, I poshed them all with a soft cloth and they looked as good as new.

Prime and Paint

Since I ended up using Zinsser Cover-Stain, an oil based primer, I brushed it on because I didn’t want to have to clean my sprayer up after using an oil based paint. After priming the entire piece, I did a light sanding with 220 grit to smooth out any imperfections. I then sprayed it using the Sherwin-Williams Origami White. I used my Graco TrueCoat 360 Variable Speed Sprayer. I used a setting of 5 (goes from 0-10) which seemed to work well with this paint. I sprayed two coats, letting it dry four hours between the first and second coat. I let the second coat dry 24 hours before starting to spray the topcoat, I used Varathane Ultimate Polyurethane which is water based. Even after testing my spray pattern, I had the sprayer set on too high of a setting and I had to deal with some runs on the sides which I had to brush out as they appeared. This was the first time I had sprayed polyurethane so lesson learned and now I know the correct setting to use the next time. But the poly smoothed out evenly and you can’t tell there were ever any runs.

But Wait, There is More

I thought I was on the home stretch, but there were more issues I had to face before calling it done. The first issue came from installing the back. I had to replace the back because the original one got wet due to me leaving a window in a garage side door open and rain came in and got the original back wet, which was standing near the door. Having to replace the back was not on my agenda. While replacing the back, my nail gun spit out two nails at once and I must have had the nail gun at an angle as they shot through the top. You are kidding me, right? So I had to pull out the nails which pulled off some wood which meant I had to repair and repaint. I used bondo for the repair and re-primed the small area and repainted by brush. As hard as I tried to blend it in, I could still barely see the outline of the patched area. So, I had to redo the entire top. I used a roller this time as I didn’t want to get the sprayer out for such a small job.

I had replaced the original door latches with Keenkee Double Roller Cabinet Catch Hardware. All of the door’s fit fine, but on final inspection, one of the doors was rubbing at the top when closed. I had turned the piece on it’s front so I could lay the back flat to make it easier to attach. Unfortunately, the piece was not square and after attaching the back, it held it out of square causing the door to rub. So off came the back again and I attached it with the piece standing up, but with some help this time to hold it in place as I nailed it on. Door rubbing solved.

Finally the piece was all finished and ready to be put on the market. It required a lot more work then I had originally intended, but there were lessons learned and you can’t get better at what you do if you don’t have some challenges along the way.