HELP! Pickled oak cabinets everywhere! (granite, laminate, hardwood floor, panel)
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We have pickled oak (dated, flesh tone) cabinets in our kitchen, two bathrooms and laundry room. Yes, the whole house!
The previous owners did a good job of updating the kitchen with granite countertops, tumbled marble backsplash (whitish) and new hardware, but after a year in our new house, the color of these cabinets is driving us crazy!
am new to this forum...can anyone recommend a way to inexpensively update our cabinets? I don't think we want to paint them.
Is glazing the way to go?
And if so, what would be the best glaze...should we go lighter or darker? Can you actually glaze the "fake wood" sides of the cabinet (those particle board looking panels)
Lastly, anyone have ballpark costs of glazing myself vs. hiring someone to completely strip & refinish?
So many questions! All opinions and suggestions welcome.
Glazing really won't do anything to change the look. They would have to be striped, stained, and then glazed. That would cost more than I imagine you want to spend, plus, you're telling us that they aren't real wood, so that would be futile anyway.
Honestly, the clear solution is paint. Or spring for some new cabinets.
Glazing really won't do anything to change the look. They would have to be striped, stained, and then glazed. That would cost more than I imagine you want to spend, plus, you're telling us that they aren't real wood, so that would be futile anyway.
Honestly, the clear solution is paint. Or spring for some new cabinets.
Glazing is not for the amateur but rather an artist or just call them a professional. Glazing means after the finish is complete a darker color is spread over the door. Then it is wiped back off leaving the color in all the grooves and nooks and crannies. Then another finish clear coat is applied.
You are right in not wanting to paint the cabinets though you will get some very very fierce arguments for painting in this forum. Some people can settle for ugly, you can't.
I want to know what brand you have. With this you can buy only face frames with doors hinged and drawer faces. What you want to do is take off the drawer faces, remove the drawers and guides and set aside for reuse. knock off the face frames from behind. They have staples on the inside and you pull them with a cotter pin puller. You now can install new face frames which will fit right in. The datos behind the face frame will fit into the side panels. You do want to run a bead of liquid nails in that dato first. Most times you will have to shoot a pin nail in the 4 corners to hold it while the glue dries and just putty the holes later.
With this method you will have a brand new kitchen without disturbing the countertop because you are only replacing the faces and not disturbing the cabinet box either. You will have to also purchase new crown molding from where you buy the face frames. You have to also buy new toe skins which you put right over the old. And lastly you will have to buy end panel skins in the color you choose for your new kitchen. These panels are thin skins which tuck behind the face frame ear. This is only done on exposed ends of walls and bases. It really is easier to just replace the uppers entirely. This method works best for bases because of the countertop. Take down the uppers and sell them on Craigslist. There is always a demand for old cabinets, people love to put them in garages.
Buying new faces will only work with the same brand what you already have. But now you can choose from every color that cabinet manufacturer has as well as every door style.
Do you really really really want to sand all that down like you will be told to do? I didn't think so. For the most part, most cabinets have non wood sides which means you can't even sand them. The center panel in cabinet doors are not always solid wood as believed and you can not sand that either. Imagine sanding every groove and nook and crany. How much is your time worth? 2 hours per door at $25/hr? You can buy the damn door new for that price and be done. But you don't want to get into refinishing either do you.
Let me know what your brand is and I can probably send you to the right place near you. Hope this helps.
By the way. Thanks for calling that disgusting color by it's proper name. Pickled oak. There are many descriptions for it. The name was born in the north east on hardwood flooring. Some kook got the idea that people might like pickled oak cabinets and it was quite popular for 5-8 years. By about 2002 nearly every single cabinet manufacturer discontinued making it. Many describe it as pink in color.
The amount of work involved in redoing those cabinet doors is dependent of a few things. How much detail is on those doors? If they are flat doors, it's simple (if you have the work space and tools), to remove the doors, strip, sand and restain the doors. As far as glazing them, look on a couple of web sites at the steps involved. Only YOU can say if you're ready to tackle something like that. Know this though, glazing is really a temporary fix if your kitchen gets a lot of wear and tear and it is not easy to get an identical glaze job on a lot of doors.
If you're not into a lot of hours of work, it's best do take desertsun's advice and look into replacing the faces on them. We recently redid our kitchen and I re-stained all of our cabinets. It wasn't hard work at ALL, but it was time consuming. The greatest time investment was removing the finish and prepping the wood for the new stain. The nice part about ours was that all of our cabinets did not have the same finish (different colors)...some pecan, some golden oak. Stripping and restaining allowed us to unify all of our cabinets without replacing any of them. As for the sides of your cabinets, you can always purchase door skins and cut them to conceal the sides of those cabinets. They stain beautifully. However, again, I'm sure that desertsun can give you information on that too. I would imagine that you can purchase pre-cut wood laminate panels to restain.
Again, this is something that a homeowner can do, and the results can be beautiful. I won't like though and tell you that it is a huge time investment, but one that can make you smile for many years if you take on that challenge. The question here is this....Do you have more money than time....or more time than money? Good luck to you!
Thanks all! Sorry to mislead with the "fake wood" question. What I meant was that they have the fake wood/particle board veneer sides that all cheap cabinets have. These were obviously not high-end custom cabinets!
Thanks so much for your detailed info., beachmel & desertsun. They are Cardell Cabinets. House was built in the late 90s and yes, they look pink! It hadn't actually bothered me much until we had a decorator come by when we first moved in and she referred to them as "peach."
Have you guys ever heard of Swing Paints Stain 'N Varnish? I saw someone else posted about it but apparently all you have to do is paint this gel over your cabinets and it gives it a new stained look without stripping.
The amount of work involved in redoing those cabinet doors is dependent of a few things. How much detail is on those doors? If they are flat doors, it's simple (if you have the work space and tools), to remove the doors, strip, sand and restain the doors. As far as glazing them, look on a couple of web sites at the steps involved. Only YOU can say if you're ready to tackle something like that. Know this though, glazing is really a temporary fix if your kitchen gets a lot of wear and tear and it is not easy to get an identical glaze job on a lot of doors.
If you're not into a lot of hours of work, it's best do take desertsun's advice and look into replacing the faces on them. We recently redid our kitchen and I re-stained all of our cabinets. It wasn't hard work at ALL, but it was time consuming. The greatest time investment was removing the finish and prepping the wood for the new stain. The nice part about ours was that all of our cabinets did not have the same finish (different colors)...some pecan, some golden oak. Stripping and restaining allowed us to unify all of our cabinets without replacing any of them. As for the sides of your cabinets, you can always purchase door skins and cut them to conceal the sides of those cabinets. They stain beautifully. However, again, I'm sure that desertsun can give you information on that too. I would imagine that you can purchase pre-cut wood laminate panels to restain.
Again, this is something that a homeowner can do, and the results can be beautiful. I won't like though and tell you that it is a huge time investment, but one that can make you smile for many years if you take on that challenge. The question here is this....Do you have more money than time....or more time than money? Good luck to you!
Just so you know, about 99% of all flat slab doors are NOT solid wood. The 1% that are solid wood are beyond most of our wallets. Of those 99%, about 80% of them are particle board with wood veneer covering it. The rest will be MDF with wood veneer covering it. These, despite popular belief and all the old wives tales you heard are far superior to solid stock wood doors even though the solid wood doors cost 6 times more.
If you sand a veneer door, just a few passes with a belt sander is all it takes and you will sand right through the veneer. At that point the door is trashed. On framed doors, your stiles and rails (the frame) is all that is solid stock wood. The center panel is 99% sure to be wood veneer over some other substrate like PB or MDF
As the OP already said, he has PB melamine side panels. This is not sand-able or paintable. And Cardell is a pretty good brand of cabinet.
Just so you know, about 99% of all flat slab doors are NOT solid wood. The 1% that are solid wood are beyond most of our wallets. Of those 99%, about 80% of them are particle board with wood veneer covering it. The rest will be MDF with wood veneer covering it. These, despite popular belief and all the old wives tales you heard are far superior to solid stock wood doors even though the solid wood doors cost 6 times more.
If you sand a veneer door, just a few passes with a belt sander is all it takes and you will sand right through the veneer. At that point the door is trashed. On framed doors, your stiles and rails (the frame) is all that is solid stock wood. The center panel is 99% sure to be wood veneer over some other substrate like PB or MDF
As the OP already said, he has PB melamine side panels. This is not sand-able or paintable. And Cardell is a pretty good brand of cabinet.
I believe the OP said that the "sides" of the cabinets are particle board. I guess I was fortunate in the purchase of our cabinets. They are not solid slab, but rather 2" strips glued lengthwise to create the "solid wood" doors. The shelf surfaces and sides are PB, but the uprights and doors are real wood. They are raised panel, but were extremely easy to sand the finish off of in order to restain. There isn't a single place on any of the "wood" that was restained that did not take the stain perfectly and flawlessly. Also, you can't tell, on the newly stained sides, that the doors are not solid wood. Yep... no veneer here. As I said, apparently we got extremely lucky. Thanks for the info there desertsun.....as always, it's much appreciated.
I believe the OP said that the "sides" of the cabinets are particle board. I guess I was fortunate in the purchase of our cabinets. They are not solid slab, but rather 2" strips glued lengthwise to create the "solid wood" doors. The shelf surfaces and sides are PB, but the uprights and doors are real wood. They are raised panel, but were extremely easy to sand the finish off of in order to restain. There isn't a single place on any of the "wood" that was restained that did not take the stain perfectly and flawlessly. Also, you can't tell, on the newly stained sides, that the doors are not solid wood. Yep... no veneer here. As I said, apparently we got extremely lucky. Thanks for the info there desertsun.....as always, it's much appreciated.
Real wood? There must be a fake wood. You have plywood sides. There is no such thing as solid wood side panels. You have plywood veneer which you obviously skillfully and carefully sanded successfully without going though the veneer.
Partical board isn't any less "real wood" than plywood is! It's just smaller particles (thus the origination of the name) VS very thin sheets of veneers. Both are manufactured wood. So using the same logic as most use, plywood is fake wood too. I know, that is getting technical on definitions but these are the every day terms we all hear that are improperly spoken.
There is NO SUCH THING as solid wood side panels on a cabinet..at any price. Not only will the cabinet be beyond our wallets but it would just not be logical.
The term solid wood means wood right from the tree...period. When larger surfaces of solid wood are needed, the boards are laminated together side by side. But...YOU MUST do this by alternating the grain patterns or it will warp badly rendering the cabinet or furniture piece useless. If you look at the edge of a piece of wood you will see the grain is a curve which is the roundness of the tree. When you glue boards side by side to create a large surface, looking at the edge of the board, one piece the grain cups up and the next piece cups down. Alternating grain patterns will prevent warping of large surfaces such as cabinet doors or table tops. Never ever will you see this solid wood on sides of cabinets. The worlds most expensive and most respected brands of cabinets will have plywood sides. And this plywood will have a desirable hardwood veneer over it as plywood itself is an ugly grain and can not be finished nicely.
I'm glad your staining came out great. If you sanded though that veneer you would know it as it would stand out like a Hooker in church. I am also glad you did not paint your cabinets. I wish you luck with it.
Real wood? There must be a fake wood. You have plywood sides. There is no such thing as solid wood side panels. You have plywood veneer which you obviously skillfully and carefully sanded successfully without going though the veneer.
Partical board isn't any less "real wood" than plywood is! It's just smaller particles (thus the origination of the name) VS very thin sheets of veneers. Both are manufactured wood. So using the same logic as most use, plywood is fake wood too. I know, that is getting technical on definitions but these are the every day terms we all hear that are improperly spoken.
There is NO SUCH THING as solid wood side panels on a cabinet..at any price. Not only will the cabinet be beyond our wallets but it would just not be logical.
The term solid wood means wood right from the tree...period. When larger surfaces of solid wood are needed, the boards are laminated together side by side. But...YOU MUST do this by alternating the grain patterns or it will warp badly rendering the cabinet or furniture piece useless. If you look at the edge of a piece of wood you will see the grain is a curve which is the roundness of the tree. When you glue boards side by side to create a large surface, looking at the edge of the board, one piece the grain cups up and the next piece cups down. Alternating grain patterns will prevent warping of large surfaces such as cabinet doors or table tops. Never ever will you see this solid wood on sides of cabinets. The worlds most expensive and most respected brands of cabinets will have plywood sides. And this plywood will have a desirable hardwood veneer over it as plywood itself is an ugly grain and can not be finished nicely.
I'm glad your staining came out great. If you sanded though that veneer you would know it as it would stand out like a Hooker in church. I am also glad you did not paint your cabinets. I wish you luck with it.
Seriously DS...my cabinets are PB .... the faces AND the doors are not veneered...period they are solid wood strips cut and milled straight from the tree. Trust me, I've cut through one of the extra doors, they are strips of solid wood, glued together side by side, then milled to make the doors. Honest dude, I really do know what I'm talking about. My cupboard doors are NOT veneer. Thanks for your good luck wishes too. Yes, my stuff turned out awesome. I'm thrilled with them. Honestly, if they had been veneer, instead of solid wood (strips), I most likely would have simply painted them. I'm thrilled to have done the restaining. It honestly looks like I went out and bought new, expensive cabinets. LOL
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