Whew. Right?!
So yeah,
my mom moved
and was looking for a way to display some of her fabulous glass objects and
decorative pieces and so within that, ran across an idea online she
wanted to recreate. Cool!
The idea? Reusing the top half of a wood hutch and adapting it into an
updated display cabinet.
These hutches are practically a dime a’ dozen on Marketplace or Craigslist or
side of the road or wherever, plenty of them free for the taking, even.
So I quipped, "mmk easy peasy, just find your piece and I’ll guide you
through." A little apprehensive she was, yet she forged ahead.
One day I get a text, "hey I found a wood hutch on the ol' internets that
doesn’t need much work at all, had it brought over, and kept only the top half
for this project."
Sweet, let’s roll!
I threw together a shopping list (see below) for her to accomplish this task,
where all she had to do was pretty well just scrub and paint, set her up for a
no sanding ‘sitch. She still wasn’t buyin’ the no sanding angle from me
though. I get it, sounds fishy.
Right, I know, I keep saying no sanding. How on earth do you
refinish a piece of wood furniture
without sanding? I have a helping friendly tip. For real.
Not clickbait.
A schedule change on my end popped up so I headed out there to make the magic
happen for her.
First appraisal? It had some interest goin' on and was indeed in great shape. A spot of a chat
ensued, goals and desired outcomes: keep the glass shelves obviously,
ditch the glass side panels, and then just make it swanky. Okey doke,
clap clap, no problem.
 |
| Before. |
So the gist was to
paint it but
after further discussion, we opted for some stained areas for contrast and
visual interest. Ya know,
design in
threes; in this case the main paint color, then the stain, and then my
mom’s objects were the three.
So ok, no matter what, prep is still always always key. Let’s hop to it.
First, off came the doors and side glass panels as she wanted a straight shot
view into her art pieces and easy access. A
screw driver,* a
screw gun,* even those disagreeable pink ones* which is what she had (eye roll, come on Mom), all off in seconds.
 |
| Ugh, yep, there I am. Fully visible. Hi. A rarity, I know. In my fuzzy travel slippers to boot. |
While gutting, I yanked the old lights out as the wiring looked uh, questionably frightening.
Next up, clean the piece which I did with a
TSP cleaner. Grab a spray bottle and thin the cleaner with some water then just
spray it on, scrubby around, wipe or rinse it off, let it dry.
FYI? I know Krud Kutter is hugely popular with the furniture refinishing
crowd; don't do it. It leaves a nasty film behind and you'll be cleaning
your piece three times instead of once.
After that, hole patch time, easily done with a
putty knife* and some wood filler patch. Since I’m painting this, no worries if
the patch was stainable or not which was great because
I cannot find a “stainable” patch
that’s actually really truly stainable.
Help yourself here, do it as cleanly as possible to minimize the amount of
patch sanding you’ll need to do later to get them smooth.
As you truck along, you'll surely run into some surprises as I had so be prepared
to switch gears a bit here and there. One surprise? I discovered
that the back was a sort of weird laminate-ish panel board.
Too, as you go, you may find that your plan or design changes along the way.
Totally normal, for sure expected, just adapt and keep a'-rollin'.
Based on these tidbits of info, we dashed out for paint, color-matching a
light blue from a wallpaper my mom had installed. Too, we picked up a
wee container of stain with polyurethane in it.
Now for the big refinish wood furniture without sanding secret: liquid
sandpaper.
You can get this little bottle of helpfulness at
Lowe's.* Or at
Home Depot.* Or at Menards. Or at
Ace Hardware.* Even on Amazon.*
Get it. Yes. This stuff is a little miracle in a bottle, as it
allows you to skip the dreaded tedium and move right onto paint.
Hot tip revealed, let’s get to my shopping list:
- TSP* or TSP substitute cleaner
- spray bottle*
- rags
- scrub pads*
- rubber gloves*
- liquid sandpaper
- wood patch*
- primer
- paint
- a nice angled sash brush*
And then what we went on to use, because mileage may vary:
Grab a scrubby pad, splash on some liquid sandpaper, and exactly how we
cleaned the piece earlier, give everything a scrub.
As you scrub along, you’ll feel the stuff working, trust me, you will. To start, the finish will feel baby-butt smooth and as you go, you’ll feel it become dull and sort of thick feeling. No need to scour or wrench yourself, but go until it feels different.
And, bonus, no need to wipe the goo off. Iiii know, right?! Let it dry.
All righty, onto the water-based stain with polyurethane. I chose this specifically as it was a two-fold solution to the laminate panel dilemma. Gel stain would not have worked here, plus I personally think gel stain sucks.
The stain aspect, of course, changes the color while the polyurethane
seals it. It may not have been the exact perfect solution, but, as
the stained areas won’t see any traffic, it worked as intended.
Next up, time to prime. Just...brush it on. Yep. That nice
angled
sash brush* will help you reach all the tight corners, snug junctions, twists, and
turns.
With the primer good to go, it’s color time. You, like me, might
need two coats to ensure everything is well and evenly covered.
Ok, rounding the bend on this no sanding furniture refinish!
Again, heh, we ran back out, this time for some wedge-shaped wood feet to raise this
piece up off the floor a bit, make it look like it’s not a randomly
dismembered hutch.
After a little bit of
math
and a lot bit of measuring and yet
more math
to get the feet in the right place into some solid wood, I drilled holes
to hold the wood insert nuts.
Those thingies hold the feeties in place since the screw-in part is quite
stubby and they require some kinda metal support system in the wood.
I of course accidentally broke one but, determination won out.
Just twist the feeties into the insert nuts all snug and those lil’ wedges
ain’t goin’ nowhere, nice and sturdy.
Then, heh, ok, we ran out again. This time to Ikea for some new
little (no doubt this link will expire, sorry) LED display spotlights. Since the holes already existed in the hutch top, I merely had to
fish wires through, peel the sticker on the light, and smush them into
place.
Now, see, this whole process was not so bad, right? Right? It
was brilliantly simple, in fact.
All that was left was to skootch my mom’s newly redone hutch into place.
She was utterly giddy with excitement, dashing about like a hummingbird, grabbing pieces to fill it up.
Pretty cool, huh?
If you need some extra visuals, I gotcha covered with a fancy pants video.
Soooo, what piece have you been putting off that you're going to no sand
refinish with your flashy bottle of liquid sandpaper? Lemme know!
If this project got your wheels turning, wait 'til you see what a hundred
bucks can do. Grab
The $100 Room Glow-Up Guide and start plotting.
And btw, Pinterest without Flip Post is like DIY without tools. Technically possible, but why would you? Unlimited pinning. Zero hair pulling.
*The liquid sandpaper links are all affiliate links at the respectively
named stores. The screw drivers, putty knives, spray bottles, and wood
patch are Lowe's affiliate links. The screw guns, TSP cleaner, stain +
polyurethane, screw-in furniture feet, and wood insert nuts are Home Depot
affiliate links. The pink tool sets, little cabinet display lights,
scrub pads, and rubber gloves are Amazon affiliate links. The sash
brushes are both Home Depot and Lowe's affiliate links. Mwah, thanks! Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.
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