Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I thought I was prepared for the long haul in refinishing our cabinets. We decided to do the kitchen and both bath cabinets all at once. I figured that the house was going to be a disaster area so we might as well do them all. We are almost finished but it has been about 4 weeks, and I have worked on them almost everyday. Yesterday I finally finished the last doors/drawers. This morning, my husband re-hung the doors with the new hardware and when I saw them I was completely blown away at how beautiful they looked! We used the "rustic" color over our 19 year old oak cabinets and I swear that they now look like expensive mahogany wood. My advice to people starting this project? Read the reviews here. There are lots of good tips. We were especially glad that we followed the advice of one reviewer who said that if you are adding hardware (drawer pulls and/or knobs) to drill the holes BEFORE you start the refinishing process. We did that and are so glad we did. You don't want to go through all this and have it messed up at the end trying to drill holes. Other things we learned... DO draw up a diagram and number each drawer and door. They tell you to do this in the video but I had no idea how important this first step is! I got together boxes for the contents of each drawer and numbered it to the corresponding drawer. You are going to need to get to things while you are refinishing and it's nice to know where to find the spatula for the grill or the wine bottle opener! It takes a little time but LABEL EVERYTHING. We had baggies for all of the screws, knobs, drawer pulls labeled for each drawer and door. Set yourself up to live while you are doing this... It's going to take time so you need to put things (like the coffee maker) where you can get to it. Take your time doing each step. Don't rush it! The first step of de-glossing is a pain, but it's important to do it well. In addition to regular paint brushes(and I had lots of them), I had a couple of smaller squared off artist brushes (about 1/2") that you can get at Michaels or other art supply store. (Don't get cheap ones, because as much as you use them, you don't want to be picking loose hairs out of your paint.) They were invaluable in cleaning up corners on the doors from build up of paint or the protective coat. Speaking of that protective coat. I admit I was scared away from using the protective coat that comes with the kit as there were so many bad reviews about how difficult it was to work with and caused headaches and heartaches. Believe me, you don't want to do all of this work to have it ruined in the end. I took the advice of a couple of reviewers and got Minwax Polycrylic Clear Satin protective coating. It's water based, was easy to use and looks beautiful. We made the mistake of getting semi-gloss to start with and it was a disaster. It accentuates any mistakes that you might have made in the other steps. Satin finish is much more forgiving. Our little romp with the semi-gloss looked horrible and cost us two days of sanding and repainting some of the cabinets. We needed more of the glaze than was in the kit. You can get more at Home Depot. I had to have someone find it for me, but at least they do stock it in a 32 fl oz size. The number is 266227 Rustoleum Decorative Glaze. I needed that number to have Home Deport customer service find it. The glaze turned out to be the thing that makes the cabinets "pop". I saw that some people skipped this step, and you can, but I'm sure glad that we didn't. Have very fine sandpaper available for when you do make mistakes and you will. I found that when I made a mistake, rather than trying to repair it, I would just LIGHTLY sand the whole section of the area that I had a problem with, repainted and reglazed. You will save yourself a lot of time in the end. In conclusion, I wanted to write this review to share my experience because the other reviews I was able to read helped me so much!! I wanted to share the things that I learned too. Our cabinets look new and absolutely gorgeous. This product is excellent; but again be prepared to put in the time and hard work. They look as good as if we had spent thousands to have them professionally refinished or replaced. You won't be sorry if you go at it with the idea that it's going to take awhile, take the time to do it right, follow the directions, and stick with it.