Hello Peter …
I am supposed to be doing a light touch-up job to some kitchen cabinets (you know hide all the 15 years of scratches). For some reason I have always been under the impression that the cabinets didn’t have a finish, but only had a stain. So I started to lightly sand the cabinets (320 grit). I ended up sanding through the stain in some areas all the way back down to bare wood. I then applied a stain to the whole cabinets. When the stain only took in the bare spots, I realized that there probably was a finish on there. The stain doesn’t completely match the original color and shows up as dark dull spots. In an attempt to disguise the finish spots, I added some red dye. So now I have a lot of goofy colors going on and the cabinets don’t look very good. I really don’t want to strip down the cabinets as we are trying to get our house on the market shortly and I dont really have the time for such a large project. Do you have some suggestions for ways to undo my mess-up with as little trouble as possible and then finish them back up??
Jonathon Spafford
Replies
Jonathan,
That's what we call a mushroom job. The more you do the more it it needs. It just keeps going.
What type of wood are the cabinets? How would you describe the color?
My first inclination is to tell you to concentrate on the larger gaffs and not try to repair everything you did.
One of the hardest parts of this job is to prescribe remedies without seeing the patient.......................
A material list
a roll of blue painters tape, a maroon (coarser) and a grey (finer) scotch pad, a small can of Zinseer SealCoat, some 220 sandpaper.
Tape off the offensive areas and then sand out the poor color match. This should go relatively quickly. If 220 paper won't do the trick drop down to 180. I always try the least aggressive approach first. Clean off all the dust.
Using a finger tip or a very soft cloth or folded paper towel, apply a thin application of the sealcoat which is shellac. Once or twice is enough. It will dry very quickly. The finger tip works very well here as it is a very soft applicator and will leave no lines.
Let it sit for an hour and then;
Lightly scuff (smooth) it with the grey scotch pad. It's now ready to be colored.
Not knowing your color makes it hard to help you with blending. Was the stain you were using a close match? If so don't stir it up; take a little of the pigment from the bottom of the can and put it on a plastic top for a palette. Thin it a little with the stain liquid. You know the containers you get with take out food? They make great palettes.
The main goal of any repair is to match the lightest part of the wood not the dark.
You can fold over a paper towel to a point for an applicator , or get a decent small artist brush to reapply the stain. The shellac barrier will inhibit penetration and allow you to A wipe it off if incorrect or B add more as required.
Once it is done give it another couple of thin coats of shellac and let it dry overnight.
Remove the tape and very lightly use one of the scotch pads to adjust the sheen. Be very careful here not to create more problems by going through it.
Another option I have used with great success for repairs of color matches is using gouache water colors. They come in very small tubes, are opaque and dry very quickly.
They can be found in any decent art supply store. I would use these in place of a stain. I can put them on over the shellac and if I don't like the color wipe them off by wetting the end of my finger. Once I see what I like, I just seal them with the shellac.
One other note; do one repair to completion and remove the tape. Walk away from it and then look at it. Is it acceptable? It doesn't have to be perfect but does it blend in better? If so do the rest of them.
There is nothing worse than doing a bunch of repairs, stripping all the tape and seeing it's not quite right. And how do I know that?
Good luck.
Peter
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