For the second sanding use 220 grit sandpaper.
How to sand kitchen cabinets before staining.
Sanding the kitchen cabinet doors and frames is hard work but pretty straightforward.
How to sand your kitchen cabinets.
Always sand in the direction of the wood grain.
Step 5 work in the direction of the grain and aim not only for complete coverage but for a light even coating.
The key here is to sand some of the existing finish off and roughen up the surface so the primer sticks but you don t need to get the whole finish off unless you re staining your cabinets.
Minwax has a 2 in 1 product that is a penetrating stain and it seals all at the same time.
Once you ve coated every cabinet surface wait for the stain.
Sand the finish from the cabinets trim and drawers with 120 grit sandpaper.
If the cabinets are stained or coated with a single layer of clear finish you may not need to use paint stripper.
After sanding apply a wood conditioner.
Before you stain the cabinets it s important to remove all the doors and drawers to make sanding and applying the stain easier.
You can lighten things.
To do that you need to sand the kitchen cabinets either by hand or with an electric powered hand sander.
Start with a heavier grit about 100 or 120 grit sandpaper for the first pass and sand with the grain.
However i would still sand the edge off of the cabinets with a sanding sponge before applying.
I used my ryobi orbital sander on all the flat surfaces basically anything it could reach and used the sanding blocks for the smaller harder to reach moldings and corners.
Use 120 grit sandpaper to lightly sand the cabinets.
Wipe clean and apply a wood conditioner with a clean rag.
In this home below the island was a dark stain and kitchen cabinets were painted a cream color.