Cheap Bathroom Makeover: How to Prep Your Outdated Vanity Like a Pro

Painting your bathroom vanity is one of the quickest ways to change the look and feel of the room.  In this post, Cheap Bathroom Makeover: How to Prep Your Outdated Vanity Like a Pro, I am going to show you the correct way to prepare the surface for paint.

Properly preparing your surface before you paint is the most important step to ensure a long-lasting finish.  You are going to here me preach about “the prep” every time I write a cabinet-painting or staining tutorial.  This post is titled “Cheap Bathroom Makeover” because good prep doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.  On the other hand,  it does take a lot of effort and trust me on this…if you skimp on this step, you will regret it down the road.

Prepping Steps for Your Cheap Bathroom Makeover:

Step 1)  Begin by removing the cabinet door hardware.  This refers to the drawer knobs or pulls.  Place them in a plastic Ziploc bag for safe-keeping. 

Step 2)  Using a drill or screwdriver, remove the doors and door hardware one by one.  Using a sharpie, make sure to label the each door and each piece of hardware to ensure that the re-installation is a breeze.

For example:  I removed the first door and then removed the first door hinge.  I will label it as such:  The upper hinge will be labeled as “1U” which stands for the first door-upper hinge.  The lower hinge will be labeled “1L” which stands for first door-lower hinge.  Place those hinges in a ziploc bag.  Once the hinges have been removed from the cabinet and door, label the door as 1U and 1L (see pic above) and label the cabinet base with the same numbers.

This may not seem like an important step but imagine a kitchen with 40 or more doors.  You will never remember where the doors go without a system.

If you are replacing the hinges, you can skip the step of labeling the hinges but make sure to label the doors.

Repeat this step with all of the drawers.  I always label the back end of the drawer and then place a piece of tape with a coordinating number on the drawer ledge on the cabinet base.

Step 3)  Sand the cabinet base with 220-grit sandpaper until the entire surface has been scuffed (etched).

Step 4)  Clean with Krud Kutter or other cleaner/deglosser.

Repeat step 3 on the drawers (if applicable) and the front and back of all of the doors.

Repeat step 4 on the drawers (if applicable) and the front and backs of all of the doors.  I like to use an angled paint brush to get all of the sanding dust out of the corners of the cabinet doors prior to cleaning with the Krud Kutter.

Let completely dry.

Now you are ready to prime and paint.  

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