Sunlight makes its entrance
Farewell, neutrals! How Rilla’s 1950s cabinets and bold wallpaper transformed her laundry room
While building her home, Rilla found herself short on inspiration for the laundry room. Three years after moving in, she gave it a fresh look with lemon-patterned wallpaper and brightly painted 1950s cabinets. Check out the instructions to refurbish the cabinets!
Refurbishing 1950s cabinets: supplies
- Sandpaper and a power sander
- Screwdriver
- (quick filler, e.g., Silora, and a putty knife)
- (adhesion primer, e.g., Tikkurila Otex Akva)
- Furniture paint (e.g., Tikkurila Helmi semi-matte, shades Tikkurila Nefriitti and Teknos Tallinn Cobles)
- Paintbrush and a small foam roller
Cabinets before refurbishment
Refurbishing 1950s cabinets: instructions
- Remove the handles from the cabinet doors. If you’d like, you can also remove the hinges and doors from the frames before sanding.
- Fill any old handle holes with putty if needed. Allow the putty to dry and sand it smooth. If you’re reusing the existing handles or if the old holes are in the right spots, there’s no need to fill them.
- Sand the cabinet frames and doors thoroughly with a power sander. Sand them to a rough finish so you won’t need adhesion primer, and you can paint the clean surface directly with topcoat. Alternatively, you can sand off only the surface of the old paint and apply one coat of adhesion primer before the topcoat.
- Paint the cabinet, sanded down to wood, with two coats of topcoat or until you achieve the look you want. You can use a paintbrush or a small foam roller. Painting with a foam roller is fast and gives a smooth finish. If you use adhesion primer, apply two or three coats of topcoat on top. Let each coat dry thoroughly. For best results, follow the drying time instructions on the paint can.
- Reattach the hinges, doors, and handles.
Tip!
Instead of sanding, you can remove the paint with a heat gun and a scraper or with paint remover.
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