I want to stain my existing cabinets a darker color, do I have to sand them?
Question:I know it will be alot of work, but I want take as little steps as possible and still have them look good. Also what are some good colors to stain it?
Answers:
yes, i did it. I had lt oak cabinets & wanted to chg it a bit. So I had to sand ea face cabinet by hand w/ a hand sander.. I went from coarse to lite sanding... Then made sure all of the sandy grit was off w/ either a tack cloth or a really really rung out wet towel.. Let dry..
Then I stained the outside of the trim w/ a pecan. Then when dried, I varnished the whole thing & left the inside the natural oak. I couldn't believe how mch it brought out the wood grain after sanding MORE so than what was showing b/4. I re-did my handles to. To save $ i painted & varnish them. They were metal/wood. Kept the wood & found colors for the handles.
It was a LOT of work... LOT of time... LOT of patience, but u know what? IT LOOKS great! Unfortunately, I couldn't stain the sides b/c they were laminate. Hopefully u can do u'rs esp if u go w/ a darker color. But I did find suggestions to do it if I wanted to. They carry very thin sheets of wood at Home Depot that u can nail/glue on the sides then u can stain it.
As far as what stain color. it really depends on what u have going on in u'r kitchen. I have linoeum floors ( which i hope to chg someday soon) & my walls r green/red/brwns ( brick & faux finish) so I didn't want to go 2 dark but the pecan really picks up the red in the brick.
My counter tops ( again anthr thng i would like to chg) r neutral speckles. Sooo
I've seen cherry w/ black granite counters if u like dark.
I put several coats of that water based poly varnish on it b/c it dried faster. Now inbet. I wet sanded to make sure it was smooth & wipe off w/ damp cloth. Then varnished again. I wanted to make sure that when i wipe the cabinets for whatever reason.. that the soapy rag won't soak into the wood.
I like the 2tone look. It jst adds a texture to u'r kitchen but some don't . Have Fun.. & take u'r time.
Stain is meant to be applied to unfinished wood, so you would need to remove any lacquer/paint/finish that is on your cabinets now. The stain soaks into the wood, so it needs to be applied to a fresh surface!
It takes extra work, and will probably require a handsander.. especially for large flat surfaces like door fronts.
As for colors.. are you leaving the flooring the same? Because to maximize the look of how big the kitchen is, try an match the cabinet colour as close as possible to the colour of the floor.
Yes, liquid sand paper may be easier for the hard to get to places. Sand the cabinets first, and then use a damp cloth to wipe off the dust. Apply the stain. When the stain is dry, apply a finish layer like polyurethane.
It is very labor intensive and time consuming to refinish cabinets. You can have the fronts resurfaced or replaced.
The color depends on your taste and the colors in your kitchen. If they are wood cabinets, I would stay with wood tones. Walnut and cherry stains are dark.
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