Refinishing kitchen cabinets?

[pampam]

My 25 year old kitchen cabinets are in dire need of a facelift. They are oak with laminate ends. I see various products on the market such as min wax, and I've also considered getting a quote from home depot or such for redoing the kitchen with new door panels, but that might be more than I want to spend. I'm kind of handy, but I don't have a lot of stamina so I'm not sure if I could do the job myself, yet I think I could. I like the way they look, with the wood grain and such so I don't want to just paint them another colour. Has anyone refreshed their cubboards? Was it difficult? I don't want to get into something I wish I hadn't. And of course, money is always an issue.

 

[reagansmommy]

We used the cabinet transformations kit by rustoleum. You can get it on amazon or at home depot. I did the entire kitchen in two days and was exhausted but if you don't mind things looking weird for a while you could do a little bit at a time. It was pretty simple.

 

[PatMcDuck]

I am going to do my kitchen cabinets this summer. (Right NOW, I am in the middle of stripping, sanding, and staining my chair railing and painting the spindles white, then will finish removing carpet from stairs, and will stain the treads and paint the risers white). If I can do this stair project, I figure I can do anything. DH will have to help figure out the landing and few other surprises I found under the carpet though. But that is another story.

I am pretty lucky, my cabinets are white, so I will sand them and repaint them white again. I bought new hardware. I have some repairs to do with wood putty, to fix some damage. (after fixing spindles chewed up by my stupid dogs, I am a pro at wood putty). i have been using stain for the first time on my railings. a little scary, but I am getting better. And I am using ONLY water based stain and poly, no smell! And I used Citristrip as a stripper, only has a mild orange smell, not bad at all (I used the gel; in case you need to strip your cabinets, I think I only need to sand mine).

I find lots of tips online and learned how to grout tiles (for example) last year watching YouTube videos. Pininterest helps me too, found lots of info on there from other amateurs like myself.

 

[Judyat]

We had dark pine stained cabinets. A friend painted them a beige color and then worked her magic and gave them a shabby chic look. We love them. What a difference it makes. If your cabinets are in good shape then this is a nice cheap alternative to new cabinets. Also changing the cabinet hardware helps too.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I am going to do my kitchen cabinets this summer. (Right NOW, I am in the middle of stripping, sanding, and staining my chair railing and painting the spindles white, then will finish removing carpet from stairs, and will stain the treads and paint the risers white). If I can do this stair project, I figure I can do anything. DH will have to help figure out the landing and few other surprises I found under the carpet though. But that is another story.

I am pretty lucky, my cabinets are white, so I will sand them and repaint them white again. I bought new hardware. I have some repairs to do with wood putty, to fix some damage. (after fixing spindles chewed up by my stupid dogs, I am a pro at wood putty). i have been using stain for the first time on my railings. a little scary, but I am getting better. And I am using ONLY water based stain and poly, no smell! And I used Citristrip as a stripper, only has a mild orange smell, not bad at all (I used the gel; in case you need to strip your cabinets, I think I only need to sand mine).
I find lots of tips online and learned how to grout tiles (for example) last year watching YouTube videos. Pininterest helps me too, found lots of info on there from other amateurs like myself.

I am about to strip some cabinets in an RV bathroom. (We bought a FEMA trailer this past week - a real RV, not a Cavalier - and are getting it fixed up.) Thank you for this advice. I was dreading the fumes!

 

[PatMcDuck]

I got the Citristrip gel in Home Depot, but I saw it in Walmart as well. For some reason, my local Lowes does not have the gel, just a spray and maybe a liquid.

I can't deal with the fumes, I am working on the staircase in the foyer, in the center of the house, no way to cut it off from the rest of the house. So only water based products for me, and so far, so good. (using Minwax stains, poly)

 

[hapandpam]

I was also thinking of doing this and did quite a bit of research. I think I might try a product called Restorz-It. I looked at their website and read a lot of the reviews. If anyone has used it, I would be interested in an unbiased opinion.

 

[njmom47]

We want to do this as well, but we have pressboard with a laminate panel. ??? DH thinks we might have to sand them (if sanding would work) and we are sure there is no paint type that would stick. I guess we could take a panel off and bring it to Home Depot or Lowes and see what might work.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

We want to do this as well, but we have pressboard with a laminate panel. ??? DH thinks we might have to sand them (if sanding would work) and we are sure there is no paint type that would stick. I guess we could take a panel off and bring it to Home Depot or Lowes and see what might work.

Sand them and then paint them with Kilz, then apply your actual paint. I've done this in the past and it works very well. I'm about to do it this weekend with some el-cheapo cabinets in a used RV. (The doors are real, the cabinets themselves are laminate.)

 

[njmom47]

^^
Thanks, I will mention this to DH.
I really can't stand my kitchen cabinets anymore!!!

 

[pampam]

We used the cabinet transformations kit by rustoleum. You can get it on amazon or at home depot. I did the entire kitchen in two days and was exhausted but if you don't mind things looking weird for a while you could do a little bit at a time. It was pretty simple.

Do the cabinets now look like they are painted?

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Someone I knew through work once redid her kitchen cabinets by taking them to an auto paint shop and they did them.

Now I have no clue how they did it, or what kind of paint they used, nor did I see them afterwards - so take this with a grain of salt. LOL I just know other co-workers that saw it said they looked beautiful. So maybe call one up and see if they do it, and what kind of prep work you need to do.

I would think they would probably spray them all at once, and probably have some durable paint.

 

[wiigirl]

We used the cabinet transformations kit by rustoleum. You can get it on amazon or at home depot. I did the entire kitchen in two days and was exhausted but if you don't mind things looking weird for a while you could do a little bit at a time. It was pretty simple.

I did that, really simple.

 

[Liza111577]

We want to do this as well, but we have pressboard with a laminate panel. ??? DH thinks we might have to sand them (if sanding would work) and we are sure there is no paint type that would stick. I guess we could take a panel off and bring it to Home Depot or Lowes and see what might work.

That is exactly what I had. The rustoleum kit worked perfectly. I re-did all my cabinets 2 years ago and they still look brand new!

The kit comes with a stripper, I washed the cabinets with a degreaser first, then I used a scouring pad with the "stripper" that was in the kit, then painted, then glazed.

I have a ton of cabinets and it took me about 4 days including dry time and new handles.

If you go to their website, I think there are 2 examples of kitchens with the pressboard and laminate panel.

No need to sand at all!!

 

[dededisney]

I have used the Rustoleum kit for two projects now...one was for our bar cabinets in our basements and they looked great...still had the wood texture to them, so it didn't look painted at all. We have since moved and I did our master bedroom furniture with it and love it. I hate the idea of having to strip and sand anything, so if this is you, the rustoleum kit is the way to go. They have so many color choices you can use (home depot/lowes mixes the color for you).

 

[kkmcan]

I just finished ours. We had builder grade golden oak and I used General Finished Java Gel stain. They come out like a dark expresso color. If you google it there are tons of reviews and step by step how to's. Its not difficult but it take me about 2 months to totally finish.

 

[Disneyforus]

Another vote for the Cabinet Transformations by Rustoleum
I did:
Kitchen Cabinets
Mantel
Banister on staircase
Bathroom Vanity

They all turned out amazing, and I love that you can still see the wood grain. It looks really nice.

 

[Disneyforus]

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[Disneyforus]

 

[Irin997]

We want to do this as well, but we have pressboard with a laminate panel. ??? DH thinks we might have to sand them (if sanding would work) and we are sure there is no paint type that would stick. I guess we could take a panel off and bring it to Home Depot or Lowes and see what might work.

I have also read a lot about using chalk paint because it sticks to anything. You would probably have to top with a poly acrylic but a furniture wax might work.

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WOW looks amazing! This is the cabinet transformations kit?