Refinishing kitchen cabinets?

[Irin997]

OH I also highly recommend the boards at the Home Site on GardenWeb. They have a massive kitchen board with super helpful people that can give you tips and tricks on how to refinish. I know a lot of people have successfully used gel paint to darken their golden oak build cabs.

 

[Disneyforus]

WOW looks amazing! This is the cabinet transformations kit?

Yup!
FYI one kit would have definately done the kitchen with some left over...I did some other pieces so I ended up buying 2 and still have left over. I am thinking about doing our kitchen stools next. I wanted to wait and see how it would wear...it's holding up well. I only had one minor incident with someone knicking a cupboard door pretty hard with a broken glass, luckily I had left over and could touch it up. Otherwise it's doing good. I think that is the key to any transformation you choose...a good topcoat/sealer. After all that work you don't want it to peel off.

 

[littlered]

My husband and I did ours. You can see them on my blog here:http://vintagemarigold.com/2013/05/18/kitchen-redo-part-ii/

 

[zoemurr]

Can I have more details and what products you used? I've been trying to find someone who will do it for me and I'm not having any luck.

 

[PatMcDuck]

Can I have more details and what products you used? I've been trying to find someone who will do it for me and I'm not having any luck.

I am in the middle of doing my large staircase too. It was all golden 90s oak. Stairs have 18 year old builder grade beige carpet. I counted the spindles tonight, 63, and the steps are all open to the outside, 1/2 on both sides (which means a tougher job). I had no idea what I was doing, just read reports on Pinintrest, etc. And I am no spring chicken, I am 54. I never stripped or stained anything in my life! I have been meaning to blog about it, I am about 4 weeks in. Still on the railings and spindles. I am going to a dark brown, with a slight red color. White spindles. Add to the work, many spindles were chewed by my dogs when they were puppies. (ARGHHH!!)

I wanted to blog it, because I am using ALL water based products.... all the reports I read used oil based, including the gel. I will say, you will likely find surprises under carpet. Not good ones. If you have a landing, like I do, that is another headache (I am passing that over to DH, who is not thrilled to have to figure it out). And I got lucky, there is hardwood on the steps, with bullnose. When they put carpet on, they staple and tack the heck out of it. I am not sure how much I have spent on supplies, more than I needed, because I tried many different techniques as I learned. But mostly this project takes TIME and more TIME. (but I have a huge staircase, for most people it would be 1/2 as much work).

PS, when you paint round spindles, use a FOAM brush. I need to blog, I have many little tips, now that I think about it.

 

[zoemurr]

I am in the middle of doing my large staircase too. It was all golden 90s oak. Stairs have 18 year old builder grade beige carpet. I counted the spindles tonight, 63, and the steps are all open to the outside, 1/2 on both sides (which means a tougher job). I had no idea what I was doing, just read reports on Pinintrest, etc. And I am no spring chicken, I am 54. I never stripped or stained anything in my life! I have been meaning to blog about it, I am about 4 weeks in. Still on the railings and spindles. I am going to a dark brown, with a slight red color. White spindles. Add to the work, many spindles were chewed by my dogs when they were puppies. (ARGHHH!!)

I wanted to blog it, because I am using ALL water based products.... all the reports I read used oil based, including the gel. I will say, you will likely find surprises under carpet. Not good ones. If you have a landing, like I do, that is another headache (I am passing that over to DH, who is not thrilled to have to figure it out). And I got lucky, there is hardwood on the steps, with bullnose. When they put carpet on, they staple and tack the heck out of it. I am not sure how much I have spent on supplies, more than I needed, because I tried many different techniques as I learned. But mostly this project takes TIME and more TIME. (but I have a huge staircase, for most people it would be 1/2 as much work).

PS, when you paint round spindles, use a FOAM brush. I need to blog, I have many little tips, now that I think about it.

Wow.. we have the exact same set-up, but "only" 50 spindles. I am trying to hire someone to do it 'cause we aren't handy. I have some painters that just did a similar job. They had to stain the hand rail numerous times to get it dark enough. They said after all the sanding/staining that they realized at the end they should have just painted it. (Yes, they are using oil based products.) So, I'm trying to decide if I want to go that route. DH wants to keep the stairs carpeted, so I don't have to deal with that.

 

[Karalea]

We used the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation as well and love it!! There are tons of pictures and reviews on their website.

We used chocolate with glaze in the bathrooms and Cocoa with Glaze in the kitchen. I totally recommend using the glaze (it is optional). I makes a huge difference between making the cabinets look like you just painted them to giving them a wood grain. Before we put the glaze on, I was thinking we made a huge mistake. The kit comes with a video and very clear step by step instructions.

We have a small, cluttered garage so didn't have a lot of room to spread out the doors after we took them off so the project actually took us 2 weeks doing a liittle bit at a time. Drying time between layers took almost twice as long as the directions indicated.

The final results were well worth living with a torn up kitchen.

 

[Disneyforus]

Can I have more details and what products you used? I've been trying to find someone who will do it for me and I'm not having any luck.

Cabinet transformations by Rustoleum.

There is no stripping involved.

As someone else said, it comes with a DVD of instructions.

 

[zoemurr]

Cabinet transformations by Rustoleum.

There is no stripping involved.

As someone else said, it comes with a DVD of instructions.

Do you think it would look any different if the railing were painted instead of stained?

 

[PatMcDuck]

Wow.. we have the exact same set-up, but "only" 50 spindles. I am trying to hire someone to do it 'cause we aren't handy. I have some painters that just did a similar job. They had to stain the hand rail numerous times to get it dark enough. They said after all the sanding/staining that they realized at the end they should have just painted it. (Yes, they are using oil based products.) So, I'm trying to decide if I want to go that route. DH wants to keep the stairs carpeted, so I don't have to deal with that.

I needed 3-4 coats of stain to get it dark enough. The later coats are easier, you don't have to go into all the little nooks and crannies, or under the handrail. those areas only need 2 coats, maybe 3. With water based stain, you have to move sort of quickly, and do a small area then wipe off (first coat is the trickiest). But with water based, you can stick on the second coat in 2 hours, same for the water based poly.

I work on this project for 4-5 hours a day. Yikes. One section left.

 

[Disneyforus]

Do you think it would look any different if the railing were painted instead of stained?

Not sure if you mean, the railing is painted currently and you want to cover it, or if you are questioning just painting it? (Just painting it won't do the trick unless you seal it in)

The Rustoleum product is kind of a paint/stain, after the cleaning/scrubbing layer which you do first..you then put down a base coat thst covers more like a paint, once that dries you put down the "stain type" stuff that gives it more of the texture, last coat is the sealer. If you go on their website you can see pictures of different surfaces that they have used the product on.

My neighbor used pain on hers and then borrowed some of my extra "stain" for the texture coat and it looks fine. The key in my opinion is getting it sealed in real good so it doesn't rub off.

I will never strip and use regular stain again after seeing the results of this.

 

[Disneyforus]

Wow.. we have the exact same set-up, but "only" 50 spindles. I am trying to hire someone to do it 'cause we aren't handy. I have some painters that just did a similar job. They had to stain the hand rail numerous times to get it dark enough. They said after all the sanding/staining that they realized at the end they should have just painted it. (Yes, they are using oil based products.) So, I'm trying to decide if I want to go that route. DH wants to keep the stairs carpeted, so I don't have to deal with that.

My railing was done in a day! I cleaned it in the morning and did the last seal coat after dinner. A builder friend was amazed at the result. You can also use it on bare wood, I did some crown molding for our kitchen cabinets as well.

 

[pampam]

OP here

I really didn't relish the thought of painting over my oak cabinets. I mentioned to a lady I know about her sister and BIL who refinish wood and asked her for their phone number. She looked at my cabinets and said she could refinish them, so I gave her the job. She took off the doors and refinished them at her place. She very lightly sanded the veneer boxes and then stained and coated them with the same product she did the doors with. She used Minwax gel stain, and top coated them with 3 or 4 coats of Crystalex interior varnish. One of the base plates had disintagrated. It was made of chip board. Her DH cut a piece of scrap wood to fit, and she stained it to match, and I had bought a pine plate rail about 20 years ago but I never had put it up. She stained that to match and it looks perfect. There was no odour that I noticed, and they look like new. She charged me $70.00 for the materials, and $200.00 for her labour. She gave me the left over product and I refiished a letter holder, key holder, and magnetic knife holder to match. Everything looks like new. Mind you, if you open a drawer, you will see where the melamine finish has scratched off, but the outside cabinets look great. I replaced the pulls and hinges with new, $115.00 I am very much pleased with the work done, and the final results.

 

[PatMcDuck]

OP here

I really didn't relish the thought of painting over my oak cabinets. I mentioned to a lady I know about her sister and BIL who refinish wood and asked her for their phone number. She looked at my cabinets and said she could refinish them, so I gave her the job. She took off the doors and refinished them at her place. She very lightly sanded the veneer boxes and then stained and coated them with the same product she did the doors with. She used Minwax gel stain, and top coated them with 3 or 4 coats of Crystalex interior varnish. One of the base plates had disintagrated. It was made of chip board. Her DH cut a piece of scrap wood to fit, and she stained it to match, and I had bought a pine plate rail about 20 years ago but I never had put it up. She stained that to match and it looks perfect. There was no odour that I noticed, and they look like new. She charged me $70.00 for the materials, and $200.00 for her labour. She gave me the left over product and I refiished a letter holder, key holder, and magnetic knife holder to match. Everything looks like new. Mind you, if you open a drawer, you will see where the melamine finish has scratched off, but the outside cabinets look great. I replaced the pulls and hinges with new, $115.00 I am very much pleased with the work done, and the final results.

Do you have before and after photos??

I am ALMOST done with my stairs, sanding was REALLY messy and so much work. The top 8 are stained and poly-ed. They look amazing, even though they are pine. I had to sand with 50 grit (lots of paint overspray), 80, 120, 180, and finally 220 after putting in the filler for the holes. (from stapes, tacks, misc. gouges, and the mess I made removing the tackless strips). I will post before and after once I get the bottom 6 done, and the risers painted white. PS they are not slippery (used satin poly), as I had feared, so we may or may not get a runner installed, or treads.