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I am getting the keys this weekend. I am torn between Staining, Painting or just cleaning my cabinets and leave them as is? Currently, the cabinets are in good shape but because they don't have handles, they have very dark hand marks that are probably tough to remove. I also like them to be stained darker or paint.
I plan to put in new stainless steel appliances but will keep the current tile countertop. I will also tile the kitchen.
I didn't have a chance to check out my cabinets to see if they are real woods or not. Do they look like wood to you? I am a first time homeowner so whatever I do, it will be my first home improvement project. We are broke so hiring contractors is out of the question.
Look to be a "builder grade" golden oak. I have seen some folks put a lot of effort into staining such cabinets and I think the end result is often pretty good if you know what you are doing.
Since it appears that you have a LOT of light AND terrific height to deal with I would not hesitate to go with a VERY intensely colored stain Water Based Wood Stain - Wood Stains (http://www.minwax.com/products/stains/water_based_wood_stain.html#Colors - broken link) maybe something as distinctive as "Spice" or "Antique Red"... If you really want to go for a professional product find a firm that will spray your cabinets with a "post catalyzed lacquer" and then hand polish / rub them so that you get a finish like fine old furniture. You will AMAZED at the difference this will have in your room!
My suggestion is to live with them as is for a while. Your tastes/wants/needs will change as you get to know the house and after living with the color, seeing how the light effects the room etc you will have a better feel for what the space needs.
I am getting the keys this weekend. I am torn between Staining, Painting or just cleaning my cabinets and leave them as is? Currently, the cabinets are in good shape but because they don't have handles, they have very dark hand marks that are probably tough to remove. I also like them to be stained darker or paint.
I plan to put in new stainless steel appliances but will keep the current tile countertop. I will also tile the kitchen.
I didn't have a chance to check out my cabinets to see if they are real woods or not. Do they look like wood to you? I am a first time homeowner so whatever I do, it will be my first home improvement project. We are broke so hiring contractors is out of the question.
Many thanks for your advice,
Jimmy
You forgot the correct choice in your poll so I can't answer except to say D none of the above.
You can't paint cabinets. Well you can but it's not right and certainly looks like hell by anyone's eyes. People paint all kinds of crazy things. I've seen people paint glass, rubber, asphalt roofs and even the grass in their yard but that don't make it right. And painting oak is just not doable. You can put 100 coats of paint on it and will still see all the grains.
Staining? No not so easy. Do you want to sand all that down? All the nooks and cranies in those doors with sandpaper toiled around your fingers? What's your time worth? There are non penetrating stains out there but they look terrible. With them you only have to scuff sand the sheen off the surface. To do it properly you need a penetrating stain which means you have to sand every last microscopic trace of finish off your cabinets for it to work. So this is not an option either.
I see nothing wrong with your kitchen. I do believe the brand to be Cardell which is a pretty decent builders grade. It appears the side panels are wood and not particle board. And if it were particle board, there is not a stain on earth that you can use on it.
At this point I suspect you are pizzed off and won't even read further so I will only go into the proper way to improve your kitchen if you ask but I suspect you won't be back. Your kitchen looks fine to me and I am pretty hard to please when it comes to cabinets.
Please disregard desertsun's answer. I love painted cabinets and have painted kitchen cabinets successfully. Of course you can paint your cabinets and if done correctly, they will look fine. I could not live with those cabinets in their present finish - I'd paint them in a heartbeat.
The current finish of my cabinets are too dirty and too bright for me. I am not sure about your experience with builder grade oak but after reading your comment and now knowing that my cabinets are builder grade oak, I googled "paint builder grade oak" and "stain builder grade oak" I found quite a few sucessful resurfacing of builder grade oak cabinets with staining or painting.
Right now I am not sure if I will use chemical stripping or sanding or a combination of both but I have a mechanical sander and I am willing to put my time into sanding if I have to. I plan to sand one or two doors a day. I hope to complete this project in two months but would not be upset if I complete this in four months. I have a brother-in-law who will help me occasionally.
I will try one door first to see how it looks.
Thanks,
Quote:
Originally Posted by desertsun41
You forgot the correct choice in your poll so I can't answer except to say D none of the above.
You can't paint cabinets. Well you can but it's not right and certainly looks like hell by anyone's eyes. People paint all kinds of crazy things. I've seen people paint glass, rubber, asphalt roofs and even the grass in their yard but that don't make it right. And painting oak is just not doable. You can put 100 coats of paint on it and will still see all the grains.
Staining? No not so easy. Do you want to sand all that down? All the nooks and cranies in those doors with sandpaper toiled around your fingers? What's your time worth? There are non penetrating stains out there but they look terrible. With them you only have to scuff sand the sheen off the surface. To do it properly you need a penetrating stain which means you have to sand every last microscopic trace of finish off your cabinets for it to work. So this is not an option either.
I see nothing wrong with your kitchen. I do believe the brand to be Cardell which is a pretty decent builders grade. It appears the side panels are wood and not particle board. And if it were particle board, there is not a stain on earth that you can use on it.
At this point I suspect you are pizzed off and won't even read further so I will only go into the proper way to improve your kitchen if you ask but I suspect you won't be back. Your kitchen looks fine to me and I am pretty hard to please when it comes to cabinets.
I think desertsun is coming from a "do it right or don't do it all" perspective which I generally advocate as well.
Sanding is something that ANYONE can learn to do really well. I myself have seen people that are literally developmentally disabled make GREAT cabinet / furniture refinishers. It is time consuming and tedious, but if you have lots of time and patience to get the right materials and GO SLOW you will have a surface that will accept stain and can really be transformed from "builder grade" to something that has the appearance of "high end" cabinetry. I don't know if your cabinet drawers have the kinds of construction / glides that would be a give away for "low end" nor do I know how the base cabinets are finished on the interior (vinyl coated particle board is commonly used in lower end cabinets and will always be a tip off that the builder was not willing to spend a bit more for a nice interior...) so I really can't say that "do nothing" is better than at least trying to get a much nicer finish on these...
Personally I have seen a tiny number of people that either are professional painters (folks that work in autobody shops have amazing skills when it comes to laying down enamel...) or really really meticulous types get a good result from painting cabinets, and even then the costs of great enamel and top coat mean that you kinda need to have HIGH END cabinets to start with for painting to make sense.
Staining is MUCH EASIER to get an acceptable result so long as you do sand down to a surface that is completely clean. A power sanding that is misused will chew up the edges and grain and risk leaving burns that will not accept stain uniformly.
I agree with some of the OP's, they are ugly, i couldnt live with them either, i would paint them.
My sister has ugly cabinets like that as well, I keep telling her to just throw a coat of paint on them, they cant look any worse than they do now.....but she insists on saving for new....I'da had my paintbrush out already since they are going out anyway..
But I do also agree with desertsun, you will be able to see thay were painted.....
Thanks every body for your advice. Yes, I will keep in mind that removing the current finish and sanding is 90% of the job and that I need to be careful and move slow. I will watch a bunch of demo videos on sanding from youtube. I have decided on staining based on your recommendations since it seems easier than painting. I also have doubts that I could paint the cabinets nicely without showing brush strokes.
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