Kitchen cabinets–do it yourself?

[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.

[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…

[sdrealtor]

One of my neighbors had their nice but unspectacular Honey Maple cabinets restained and they now look very rich. It was not inexpensive but the result looks very current and high end now. If you would like I can ask them who they used. Just PM me.

[bearishgurl]

[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!

[Diego Mamani]

[quote=bearishgurl]The result was spectacular and the cabinet job only took one summer weekend and cost about $40![/quote]Amazing!

[briansd1]

Old cabinets have exposed hinges and frames.
No refinishing can fix that.

[Aecetia]

[quote=jpinpb]If you go to Home Depot, give them 50 bucks, they will have someone come out, take measurements and provide them to HD. Then you meet w/someone at HD who has a computer program, punches in your dimensions, locations of any windows, sinks, frig, oven, microwave, etc. They help you design it all. You decide what kind of cabinets, wood, color, etc, etc. They can actually give you a virtual view of what it will look like. Kinda cool.

You are not obligated to use their installers. You can just buy the cabinets yourself and then install them yourself, or hire someone else.

Been checking into this myself. Though I got a lead on someone who actually makes custom cabinets and says will beat HD pricing. Meeting on Saturday. We’ll see.[/quote]

Please let us know how it goes. Your posts are always informative and useful. I keep them in a file for future use. Thanks!

[Author]

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