[quote=Diego Mamani][quote=bearishgurl][quote=Diego Mamani]I like my circa 2001 kitchen cabinets, but I hate their color… a little too light for my taste. I would like to change them to something darker. Is staining or repainting something doable? (As you can see from my questions, I’m not an experienced DIYer…)[/quote]
Look into refacing for a fraction of the cost of new cabinets.[/quote]
Thank you BG. There’s refacing and there’s re-staining. I’ll probably go for the latter, but will likely hire someone to do it…[/quote]
I once took my (15 yr old) oak cabinet doors off and emptied and removed the drawers and took them all outside, then:
1. Cleaned the doors and drawer fronts with Murphy’s Oil Soap;
2. lightly sanded doors and drawer fronts (just roughed up);
3. applied Carver Tripp Spanish Oak Stain to all;
4. applied Minwax Satin Urethane Finish (2 coats a day apart);
5. cleaned the front of the “cabinet skeleton;”
6. applied 2 coats Liquid Gold to the cabinet skeleton (didn’t remove anything inside them);
7. put doors back on with same hinges and put drawers back in and filled them.
Carver Tripp stain has a LOT of pigment and the Spanish Oak color was a little darker than the original color but it matched very well. I was so impressed with it that I later replaced the baseboards with nicer pine ones stained with Spanish Oak and satin finish (it was a large eat-in kitchen). Hint: I used abrasive 3M pads to clean the skeleton.
The result was spectacular and the cabinet job only took one summer weekend and cost about $40!
