Staining Bathroom Cabinets - My First DIY Project!

I DID IT!

Yes. Me.

I stained the super-ugly-pink-bathroom-cabinets all by myself. And guess what? It's my FIRST DIY project. That's right. My first.

If I can do it. You can do it! (This project proves it.) It just takes time, patience, and some work. :) But it isn't rocket science.

I first saw this project at One Good Thing by Jillee who directs you to Monica Wants It for the full tutorial. It sounded "easy" enough. I did know that it wasn't necessarily "easy" though, but for me (being my first DIY project) I felt like I was confident enough that I could do it. It does take patience and hard work (I may be reiterating this throughout the post). A lot of bending over (and achy backs), but I actually did enjoy doing it.

I honestly didn't think these cabinets could get any worse anyways. They are over 19 years old and really ugly. They had some sort of weird, light pink stain applied to them when the home was purchased. I dunno....they just looked so awful. I'm surprised my eyes haven't burned out of their sockets after 19 years of looking at them.

My biggest worry with this project was that my cabinet color was not the same as Monica's. Hers are that oak color you see in a lot of homes that you buy. Ours are pink!! What the heck?!

Anywho, follow Monica's blog post. She did such a perfect tutorial and, let's be honest, the tutorial would be a beast to write. ;)

Photos of My Process

First, here are the photos of each phase.

My Tips 

First, here is another lovely picture of how the vanity turned out.

And without further ado, here's what I learned from this process.

• Use the men's sock! Seriously. I read over Jillee's post and she said she preferred the cheap foam brushes. For me, the foam brushes took twice the amount of time to stain than the sock did. I felt that the sock was super easy and you have more control. The foam brush was great to get into some nooks and crannies you otherwise can't get into. My foam brushes were all different sizes and I found that the small ones are great to dip into the can, but, of course, the big ones are impossible to dip. Put on a laytex glove, put a sock over it, and start spreading!
• Use a tiny paint brush for the spots you can't get (after applying the second coat). There were some spots that even the foam brush and a sharpie couldn't get. My cabinets were really worn and had a lot of spots. Check out one of the photos above for proof of how horrible they looked. I would definitely go over your cabinets with a tiny paint brush (that you don't care about throwing away) and get into the nooks and cranny after you have applied the second coat of stain. We did it after the 3rd coat and I ended up having to apply a 4th because the brush made it looks like it had some "patchy" spots. The 4th stain took care of it, but if we had brushed in the nooks after the 2nd stain, then I would only have had to do 3 stains.
• My 2nd coat looked REALLY bad. Don't stress if the 2nd coat looks almost as bad as the first. The 3rd coat really does make the difference. Don't believe me? Check out some photos of my 2nd coat above. I about killed myself.
• I decided to try a spray can for the poly. Go with the bucket, not the spray can! My hands aren't the strongest and so they started hurting early on when spraying all of wood. Luckily, my brother was there and did most of the work spraying them (hehe). It took longer than I think brushing the poly on would have took. Plus, it was kind of hard spraying the vanity inside the bathroom without getting it on everything. So yeah, bad idea on my part. Plus, it's probably more expensive? I didn't even compare.
• For me, the 3rd coat of stain really did look rather nice. You could still see some brush strokes (from the sock, lol) but it gave them character. However, the 4th coat really did finish them off for me. I think it's because my cabinets were a weird color to start. So, they still turned out really pretty and I love them, but your color may come out different depending on the starting color of your cabinets. I don't remember Monica's and Jillee's looking quite as dark as mine do.

Knick Knacks and the Overall Cost

So, what did the project cost me? Let's divide it into sections so you can see the whole thing come together.

Staining the Vanity (supplies)

• Tack Cloth (pack of 12): $13.01 -- I ended up using 2 tack cloths so that cost me about $2.17 for those two cloths.
• Java Gel Stain, 1/2 Pint: $8.49 plus $5.99 shipping. I only used half the can for 4 coats. Serious! So I can stain a whole other vanity, which I might end up doing. So the cost for this vanity was $7.24 for the stain (if you don't count the other half of the can).
• 4 Foam brushes: About $3.50. I wish I had only purchased 1 though, as only 1 was needed for me. However, it wouldn't hurt to purchase 2 small ones just in case.
• Painter's Pyramids: About $5.00 for a 10-pack. Once you have them, you can use them for multiple products! This was a good buy.
• Handles and knobs: $18.55
• Angled sanding blocks: $6 a piece. We had initially purchased 2 because my mom and I were going to do the project together, but I got impatient because we kept putting it off and just went ahead and did it myself. So now we have an extra sanding block. So that was $12, but it could've easily been $6.
• Polyurethane (spray can): About $7-8. I forgot to keep track of the price of the Poly. Sorry! But I'm pretty sure it was around that price.

Please note that this is only a few of the supplies needed for this project.

We had everything else. Total it cost us about $74.54 to stain the vanity. However, if I take into consideration leftovers and stuff that will be used over and over again for other things, then the cost comes to $43.21. So, I believe you can do it for about $50 if you are smart about it and if you take into consideration that tack cloths, painter's pyramids, and the leftover stain will be used for other things. If you are missing the majority of the items that Monica mentions though, then it could easily cost you about $75 like it did for us.


Knick Knacks and Extras

• Paint for the walls (we chose Thin Ice from the Olympic brand and had it mixed at Lowes): about $32 for a quart (which will be used to paint another room as well).
• Lantern: $9.00 (from Amazon)
• Rug: $10 at TJ Maxx
• Tree: $10 at TJ Maxx
• Moss: $2.50 at TJ Maxx
• Soap dispenser: $10 at TJ Maxx (everything seems to be $10 there!)
• Towels: $10 total for 2 hand towels and 2 large towels (at Walmart)
• Ribbon: $3 at Walmart (sewed the ribbon onto the towels)

That's it! I had everything else and just thought really hard about how to use things and make it look pretty. So, to paint the room it cost $32 (we already had all the painting supplies) and it cost me $54.50 to decorate the space and add new towels.

So far this bathroom makeover has cost $161.04. There are just a few more things I'd like to do to it though. My mom (it's her bathroom if you didn't know) purchased a new faucet, which we will hopefully get to install soon and then I'm planning on framing the mirror to give it that final touch. The faucet cost $94, but I did see a pretty nice one for around $50. However, we decided to be picky and go with the exact one we wanted.

I'm not sure how much the frame will cost. There is a company that I was looking into that makes some really easy to install frames, but the cost is a little over $200. Now, that's a lot better price than buying a whole new mirror for the space, but it's still too costly for me. My plan is to purchase 3 baseboards and cut and install them onto the mirror myself. I'm guessing it will cost around $45 to do it. Hopefully less! Depends on the trim. ;)

I hope you enjoyed this look into our bathroom and feel inspired to do your own! If you end up doing it based on my blog post, please share it on my Facebook page. :)