Refinishing Furniture with Kids

My daughter refinished a cabinet.

This year the kids have lots of control over their education in that they can select research topics and activities from a pre-approved list or suggest their own. One of the items on the list was refinish the small cabinet in the family room. My hands-on crafty daughter selected this item right away.

After she decided to refinish the cabinet, I told her she would have to do some research and put together a plan before starting. Therefore, she began by spending an afternoon watching DIY videos on youtube and then describing her plan. Once the plan was in place, we headed off to Home Depot to get supplies.

Since she wanted to paint the cabinet instead of restain it, we learned that she didn't need to fully remove the existing stain. Thus, her first major task was sanding.

But before sanding, she removed the hardware from the front door and removed the front door from the cabinet. I doubt the hardware had ever been cleaned. So she researched how to clean brass and learned she should coat it in catsup and let it sit for an hour and then wipe it clean. She did and now the hardware really shines.

Sanding even a small cabinet sounds like a big task for a little girl, but she actually had some prior exposure to sanding so had an idea of what to expect. A few years ago we did a major family project and refinished twelve Adirondack chairs.

Since there were so many chairs and foot rests, everyone in the family had an opportunity to use an electric sander.

We all got to stain, and stain some more.

I think, seeing such a dramatic improvement in the chairs motivated her to select this project.

During the sanding process, the back of the cabinet practically fell off because it was so old. So my daughter went back to the store, this time with her dad, and purchased some wood to create a new back for the cabinet.

Together they measured and marked the new back piece and then my husband cut it out.

 Once the sanding was complete, she began with primer and finished up with paint.

The entire project ended up taking about three weeks. She had to take a few days off because of a sore throat and a few more days off because the humidity was extremely high. Nevertheless, she persevered through the entire project and now is very proud of her finished cabinet. We are proud of her too.