It's late I'm tired. Have a look at this thread to get the concept of evaporatives VS. reactives.
http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads...amp;sb=5&o=Right about now, start wishing for an evaporative finish on your cabinets. Wish for nitrocellulose lacquer. If that's what you've got, this will be the perfect example for me to demonstrate how to (as I said in that thread) "push it around like wet clay."
If you have nitrocellulose lacquer, a new finish can be put atop the existing finish. They will be one finish. You can do what I've always called, "doping the mix" to address various challenges and obstacles to success. Evaporatives are sometimes referred to as monolithic coating materials. This is because they are ultimately one coat, hence the prefix "mono." If your current finish is being a naughty boy, and if it is nitrocellulose lacquer, there is most likely no need to strip. New coatings can be mixed and doped to give the existing finish and the new finish (they're the same thing, doncha know) the desired quality.
If you have a reactive finish, things are going to be a wee bit more difficult. A cured reactive finish will NOT rewet. It will NOT mix with the new coat. If it's doing its job properly, it will resist chemical contaminants like the proverbial water off a duck's back. Your new finish coating will be that newly introduced chemical contaminant.
A "hot" rag; one wet with lacquer thinner, should quickly soften nitrocellulose lacquer. It will remove it in ideal conditions. Try that on an unseen spot. In a kitchen, the most common reactive finish would be catalyzed lacquer. Sometimes it's pre-cat, and sometimes a two part mix. Conversion varnish is far more common these days, but you did say, "it has seen better days, blah blah blah." The whitewash finish was also a little more popular a while back.
Find somebody knowledgable at a paint store, bring them a door, and ask them.
Summary: You need to determine if you've got an evaporative or a reactive finish on the existing.
Pray for evaporative.
