How do I make cheap laminate cabinets darker?

On the doors and frames you can clean, sand, stain, and seal the wood. Perhaps you could water down some dark paint and kindda glaze the parts that are not real wood. But, with that said, I think I would use a primer tinted to the light color of the look you want and paint over it with a thinned down version of the dark you want. Then either dry brush some of tbe dark off or use a graining tool to drag a wood grain into the paint. Using primer will insure that your paint will stick to the non wood parts.

One solution is just to get door replacements. My friend did this. You have to take precise measurements. Order off the internet. Take off old doors, put on new ones. Yu have to also install the hardware.

sand them lightly to remove the poly coating. then re-stain with preferred color. all cheap cabinetry or builder grade generally have some kind of poly layer . In order to get anything accomplished this layer needs to go. Break out your sander and go at it.

if you want the grain to show through the only way is to remove whats covering it. once sanded the grain will appear naturally so you can then re-stain/.