From Start to Finish – Finishing Cabinets with Aqua Coat Products

From start to finish – Finishing Cabinets with Aqua Coat Products

If you’re here, you probably already know about Aqua Coat’s line of environmentally friendly water-based, low VOC products. You almost certainly know of our excellent reputation for quality. Our products aren't just designed to make you feel good about using them, and they are meant to create a finished project that looks great. If you don't already know about all of that, we're glad you're here. Browse around the site and learn all you can about our great eco-friendly products.

Our sustainable line of paints, stains, additives, and more are used around the United States on products as diverse as guitars and mid-twentieth century ballrooms. One project that comes up, again and again, is cabinets, whether building them from scratch or refinishing them.

No matter which you're doing, refinishing, or building from reclaimed or leftover wood from other projects, you are going to need to sand your wood nice and smooth. For your sake, I hope the wood is beautiful and flat without any fancy trim work. After you have your cabinets sanded down to a smooth, 320 grit finish and blown all the dust off, you're ready to move to the next step.

Aqua Coat has an excellent, low VOC blotch barrier that will make sure your stain penetrates evenly over the surface of your cabinet. Let it dry thoroughly, and you're ready to crack open a can of Aqua Coat’s highly recommended water-based grain filler.

We have a couple of different options, including a clear grain filler for use on projects you plan on staining. If you're going for a painted look, you might want to check out our white grain filler. Both do an excellent job of filling in the wood's pores without raising the grain (a must when working with old oak cabinets), so the finish will be glassy smooth. Put on an even coat of our grain filler, let it dry for a good forty to sixty minutes and sand again before applying another coat. Careful not to apply it too lightly, as you the run risk of sanding right through it.

Should you be working with damaged, reclaimed, or just knotty wood, we recommend our Waterborne Natural Wood Putty. It comes in a natural beige color but can be tinted before application to match an already existing color. Or, you can apply, sand, let dry and stain or paint right over it. The finished result is a surface that is smooth and free of blemishes.

With your cabinets fully prepped, you can now break open a quart or a gallon of Aqua Coat’s low VOC stain or our excellent water-based paint. Depending on your preference, you can easily apply the stain by brushing, spraying, or wiping. You can also choose between several different stains to get precisely the look you want. Here are just a few:

• Nutmeg
• Red Mahogany
• Walnut
• Warm Oak
• Warm Cherry
• Cognac
• English Oak

There are many more to choose from. If you would like a lighter version of a given stain, you can even thin it with our Aqua Tone Clear Stain Base.

If you are looking for a durable paint, Aqua Coat has you covered there as well. Designed specifically for interior use, our acrylic, waterborne primer will seal the surface of your cabinets before applying paint, making for a smooth surface.

The paint itself may be easily used with a sprayer or a brush. Like the primer, it is a waterborne acrylic that dries to a hard and smooth surface that is ideal for use in high traffic areas like kitchens.

You're almost done. All you have to do is apply one of Aqua-Coat's eco-friendly finishes to provide that final touch. Depending on your preferences, there is the Aqua Thane topcoat that sticks well to both wood and plastics. It is already a highly flexible and durable product but can be made even more so by mixing the Aqua Thane with our Crosslinker.

If you would like to stay with our waterborne products, our clear lacquer will meet your needs nicely. We also have a brushable urethane varnish for those who prefer working in that medium. Finally, if you really need a finish that will stand up to anything short of someone jabbing with a screwdriver, we recommend the Aqua Coat TableTop Top Coat, which provides a commercial-grade level of durability for your cabinets.

Did we say finally? As everyone knows, the work is never over until the cleanup is complete. For that, Aqua Coat makes a non-hazardous eco-friendly equipment cleaner that may be used on your spray guns, brushes, or anything else you might have used during your project.

Once you're finished, you can mount your hardware, hang the doors, and take some pictures so you can show us how Aqua Coat helped you get the job done!