Should I paint or stain my oak kitchen cabinets?

Do you sand kitchen cabinets before gel staining them?

If they're already painted, they're unlikely to have wood worthy of being stained, in which case, I would paint it.

My husband painted our old cabinets with paint + primer. Big mistake. If you are going to paint, use a good quality primer first. He put 3 coats of paint on the cabinets and they still looked like they needed another coat.

Whether you paint or stain depends on whether you like paint or whether you like stain! Stain would require more work as you have to get down to the bare wood before you can stain and then you have to finish with a poly. Painting, especially if you use chalk paint with a finish of wax or poly, would require less work.

If you choose to paint the cabinets make sure you take into consideration the amount of light you get in the kitchen as well as the color of the floors. You definitely don't want the cabinet color to compete with the flooring or be so dark if the room gets limited natural light, dark cabinets may make it look darker.

It would depend on the look you are going for.... are they real wood? Stain is going to let your grain show through whereas I think the paint would give you a more modern look in black. Good luck.

Take one of the cabinet doors to the paint department of the home improvement store and ask them to select paint/stains and other finishes and application tools that will work for your kitchen. They have the best selection, the most up-to-date materials and most important, the most informative sales staff to get you what you need for a professional job.

Kat,

Are these new unfinished cabinets or are you planning on stripping the existing finish? Do you know what type of wood they are? Are they painted or stained now? If stained, then the wood is "stain grade," meaning the grain is clear enough to look good with a stain. You can either re-stain or paint. If painted, the wood may be "paint grade" and will not accept or look good stained and you will only be able to re-paint them. Once you have that figured out you can decide on the look you want. Check out this article:

https://peekbrotherspainting.com/painting-contractors/can-i-stain-my-cabinets-a-different-color/

So my hubby is a wood guy and loves wood cabinets. He is actually making our kitchen cabinets right now and will be finishing them with Waterlox. Waterlox is amazing and thin so it will need 4/5 coats but the result is so nice. I used Waterlox in this post on a bench I was refinishing:

https://karupp-did.net/bench-part-2/

Now if you are thinking about paint:

Your end product depends on the prep!!!!!! I know many say that doesn't matter with certain paints....but believe me it matters!!!! ALSO...the paints are a huge factor for kitchens and bathrooms. You will want to use something super heavy duty for that kind of traffic! If you are putting the time in to prep them well and paint them well you will want a good paint that will last. Benjamin Moore ADVANCE!! $50 per gallon but it's so worth it!!! That paint is an excellent cabinet paint and you don't need a topcoat. I seriously just wipe it down when it gets dirty. Anyway, hope this helps.

Just had our oak cabinets done grey last week so there's more wall painting to be done now that the cabinets are finished, but we had it done professionally. First they wiped them down with a degreaser, sanded lightly, two coats of primer and then 2 coats of Benjamin Morre Insl-x Cabinet Coat Urethane Acrylic Satin paint. I picked White Stone grey and changed the hinges and handles to satin nickel finish. I am very pleased with the look. Here is what it looks like now.

I think it depends on the look you want. If you want a wood look, then use gel stain. If you don't or you want a specific color that is pretty light, use paint. If you're not sure, use the best tool that we have right now - the internet. Use either google.com or bing.com to search for each look. When you land on the page, look for the word "Images" on the top, then click. You'll see a lot of ideas that your search engine found for you. When you use google.com, you can also look at the page where the picture is used. Just click on the picture, then click on "Visit" on the right. (I haven't see that feature on bing.com but I could have missed it) If you search something like ' diy painted cabinets ' or ' diy gel stained cabinets ' you should see the difference. (Don't use the ' ) Wishing you the best

Consider that kitchen cabinets get more wear and tear than any other cabinets and furniture in one's house. Wall paper and contact paper are just that, paper.

I'm going to gray-wash a stain over mine and keep the wood grain showing through. They'll need to be cleaned and sanded so that the stain can permeate the wood. Then they'll need to be re-coated with a spar varnish or a high grade polyurethane in the same base as the stain. Meaning, if the stain is oil based, then the poly should be oil based; if the stain is water based, then the poly should be.

This is not a one-day project and I would take off the doors, their hardware and number them - so they can be done laying flat.

Mineral paint sticks well after a base coat. Check out eastern shore chic for more info. She uses Dixie Belle paint. I repainted some oak bathroom cabinets without any problems.

Painting cabinets are not for the faint at heart. It takes weeks to get them right. Using a paint sprayer will eliminate the brush marks. If you don't have a paint sprayer, use mohair rollers. Rustoleum makes a cabinet transformations kit that your may like.

Remove doors and hardware and clean all of your surfaces with a liquid deglosser and use lint-free cloths. Make sure you get a deglosser, not a degreaser. Deglosser is sometimes called liquid sandpaper. It will take the shine off the surfaces so that paint can adhere. Start your painting process with Stix primer and follow up with 2 Coats of Advance paint by Benjamin Moore. You need to let these dry at least a full day in between Coats. Be careful about drips. Use good quality paint brushes. Doors will take more than a week because of doing the same process on both sides.

Hi. One of the first things people want to do is paint cabinets. How about staining them? You can dramatically change the look with a gel stain.

1. Gel stains now come in a variety of colors.
2. Also install under the cabinet lighting. There are plug-in types, hardware and even battery with remote control! This will immediately upgrade the room.
3. Spray paint your knobs and clear coat.

Puff! for about $150 USD, you've got a new kitchen. Happy DIY'ing!

I stained my cabinets and it was a much easier job than painting them.

Painting is much easier, requiring no stripping or sanding of the cabinets. That said, I recently "painted" my old, outdated bathroom cabinets using a kit from Rustoleum and they turned out fantastic. Here are a few photos of what the wood looked like before (oak/brown) and after (Federal Gray). I bought the kit at Home Depot and choose my color (they will tint it to one of many available colors you choose). The kit's are available for either light or dark cabinets in several colors. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-Transformations-Light-Color-Cabinet-Kit-9-Piece-258109/202572588

Staining new...unsealed wood cabinets is easy. A little prep time and at least 3 coats of ... Marine varnish/poly. Very durable. Holds up to moisture, grease, and.... dries very fast. What I needed because I have cats prancing around...and cat hair in the air!

Now on prestained or painted cabinets... Not so easy. Have to strip the old finish off. Very messy job. But you also have to get the old sealer out of the wood, otherwise the stain won’t sink in. Will just sit on top. You can wipe the stain right off. So sanding is a must....a careful sanding. Most cabinet doors only have a thin layer of wood laminate and you can sand right through it totaling destroying the cabinet door. The base of the cabinets might be solid wood....but be careful any ways.

My cabinets and doors were all solid wood with an old honey oak finish that had yellowed. And around door handles and draw pulls it was worn away and replaced with a tacky black gummy substance.

So my main goal was to remove the old varnish...maybe darken the cabinets a bit. But I could never get the old wood sealer out and no stain would sink in. The color was much nicer since the old varnish was removed so I decided to live with it. 3 coats of marine varnish....and they were beautiful. A much richer color than before. And years later, the black gummy stuff around handles and pulls never returned.

I must add...I tried to refinish them 3 times before I got good results. Most times, within a year the black gummy stuff was back. Worse than ever! Poly varnishes that I used were thick and brush stroked showed.

I don’t know what I was doing wrong, but I’m guessing the marine varnish was the trick to success. Beautiful finish with no brush strokes. Very thin finish that left the wood remarkably smooth and left you with the natural wood grain ... but of coarse with a lighter honey oak finish.

I could have painted them in two coats, but I consider it a sin to paint nice wood.

Believe me...the honey oak colors will come back in style. Many homes are filled with the color. Doors, window frames, floor moldings. But it is also a much loved finish to give your wood.

and it’s easy to fix a nick or scratch.

Paint on the other hand will chip. No way around it. Scratches show easily. Very hard to get a nice smooth finish unless you’re a professional painter.

but, today, painted cabinets are very popular...and they are beautiful...when they’re new. They will not stand up to the wear and tear in a kitchen over time. And each time you repaint them, the finish gets thicker. Just find some old painted items that have been painted multiple times. They’re not pretty. You can’t just keep layering it on and expect pretty.

I would only paint cabinets if they were in really bad shape. Or ugly to start with. And if you feel you will put in new cabinets down the road a bit.

And please don’t just remove the doors and have open shelves.

Pit might be a quick fix and be accepted by a young person with her first kitchen. But she will find those open shelves get dusty and greasy. And where do you put stuff that doesn’t double as a nicnack. Cereal boxes are not pretty....neither are canned goods. And most pots and pans.

From a seasoned kitchen remodler.

Susan jerabek

How to Paint Cabinets

Make sure they are clean and dry. Remove the doors and hardware. Mark the doors and cabinets with tape where they go. Lightly sand the doors and cabinets to remove any gloss and roughen the surface for paint with 100 grit sandpaper or a green Scotch Brite pad.. Use a tack cloth or damp rag to remove dust after sanding. Prime with a stain blocking primer like KILZ. You can have the primer tinted to the color of the top coat but not necessary. Acrylic, or water base paints are low-fume and clean up easily with water. Alkyd, or oil-base, paints require good ventilation because the paint contains solvents that can irritate your lungs and make you feel sick. Alkyd options require mineral spirits for cleanup, but they provide a hard, durable paint finish. Whichever you use, buy the best-quality paint you can afford for a lasting kitchen cabinet finish. Seal with at least three coats with a water based polyurethane. Use a small foam roller and foam brush for a smooth finish.