Refinishing Oak kitchen cabinets, no i don't want to paint them!

[Cdshakes]

I have typical "blonde-oak" cabinets in my kitchen.  Theyre in pretty good shape and to replace them sounds expensive.

I've seen soooooo many people just painting them white (including my father).  It looks nice, but not something i really want to do
Any searches for refinishing oak cabinets just yield "paint them white" results.

Anyone have any success refinishing?  I'd ideally like a color with a little more red in it... like a cherry type color.
Seems oak cabinets were either Golden, or Dark Brown...

Colin

[EightFingers]

I agree, I don’t think oak looks very good painted.

[lift mechanic]

Couple problems with refinishing kitchen cabinets is sanding good enough in the corners to accept staining. Another, what is the cabinets made of solid wood or a thin plywood veneer. Sanding through a veneer is not that hard to do. I prefer stained cabinet with Arm-R-Seal top coat.

[MstrCarpenter]

I've done a few. I lightly sanded the worn, gummy, water stained areas. and repaired the few damaged areas. I used shellac to build up the finish in those areas and sanded to create basically uniform finish. After cleaning with M.S. I sprayed them with tinted shellac followed with Campbell's pre-cat lacquer. You can brush the pre-cat on the face frames if you work fast and don't go back over it. If you have to sand the pre-cat, you need to go to 600 then wax for a gloss finish to blend with unsanded areas. One was a small kitchen, but I took the doors and fronts home one morning and re-installed them the same day with updated handles. You could do the same with nitro lacquer, (w/ or w/o wax) but you'll get water spots. The pre-cat is almost indestructible so it's also difficult to repair any errors during application. Get a film thickness gauge and practice on the backs. I'm not saying it's difficult, with good lighting and a little practice it's actually easy.

[fredhargis]

Have you considered refacing them? That would also require (probably) new drawer fronts and doors but it gives you fresh wood of your choice to satin/finish as you see fit. There's a book by Herrick Kimball that's really good at explaining the process, has some good tips, and can be bought use at Amazon for almost nothing. You might want to check it out.

[Cooler]

Have you considered refacing them? That would also require (probably) new drawer fronts and doors but it gives you fresh wood of your choice to satin/finish as you see fit. There's a book by Herrick Kimball that's really good at explaining the process, has some good tips, and can be bought use at Amazon for almost nothing. You might want to check it out.

That's my plan for my kitchen which is also "golden oak".  

I will use a maximum overlay to minimize the exposed face frame.  In my case that is 1-1/4" overlay.  The grain will telegraph through but should be hardly noticeable.  The replacement doors will be poplar and should take paint well.

I will roller on 1-2-3 primer and back brush it with a light application of a foam brush.  Two coats of primer will minimize the grain after paint. 

The problem with refinishing golden oak is that you have remove all the old finish if you want to show a modern-looking stain.  That's going to be a lot of sanding and I doubt it will effectively deal with the interface between the center field panel and the rails and stiles. 

Paint dieals with this issue, but with oak cabinets I find the grain distracting.

[John Mihich]

A few options.

1.  Clean first. 
2.  Using liquid sander - it's like sanding it - or sand - 320.
3.  Apply gell stain the color you want - wipe off to the point you like
or
3.  Use a product like Polyshade - difficult to use but can work.  I have thinned it and wiped on.
or
3.  Tint water based poly and brush on - similar to Polyshade but water based.
or
3.  If the original finish is factory then tint some lacquer and spray it on.

Of course take the doors off and mask off anything you don't want sprayed of brushed.

We did ours and I sprayed the doors but hand brushed the cabinets. 

The big thing - the cabinets around the stove will have extra work because of the grease in the air. 

Lots of work but WAY cheaper than buying or building new. 

I also made new drawers and the lower cabinets with shelves I replaced them with drawers.

[Cooler]

Both HomeAdvisor and Angie's List both list "furniture stripping companies near me".  These companies will dip the parts in a vat and remove the finish, and then rinse off the chemicals.  If I were going to refinish the doors and drawers, I would go that way. 

I would sand the face frames and refinish in-place.

[jteneyck]

Unless the finish on the doors and drawer fronts is in perfect shape I would strip them or have them stripped before refinishing. Then you are starting with a clean slate and can do anything you want.  If you don't want to do that a really good cleaning with MS will get them ready for a light coat of Sealcoat shellac, which sticks to most everything and most everything sticks to it.  The problem with this approach, however, is if there are damaged areas in the old finish.  It just won't look the same when you are done unless you are going very dark or are willing to spend a lot of time adjusting the color of the shellac with Transtint dye for those areas.  

You can make your cabinets about any color you want.  If you start with stripped cabinets you could use stain or dye, or both.  If you don't strip them you still have options including colored shellac (Transtint in Sealcoat) and or gel stains, and even color in your topcoats.  If you like the heavy oak grain then strip them and use pigment stain.  If you don't, then seal them well if you strip them then layer on colored shellac and/or gel stain.  

John

[toolmiser]

I don't have a horse in this race, but about 15-20 years ago, we had really dark stained oak cabinets. I thought about stripping them down to make them light. Ended up remodeling the whole kitchen including me making new cherry cabinets. Now it seems like most "trends" don't want any wood, just paint. My point is do what pleases you, don't chase a "style".