Update Yellow Oak Kitchen Cabinets

Hello!  I love your site.  Very informative.

I am interested in updating my ugly medium oak kitchen cabinets.  They look soooo yellow to me, ick.

I want to change them to a dark cherry color.

Can you explain the process in its entirety?

I need to know what kind of sanding I need to do, then colors of paint/glaze.

Thank you so much!  

I just bought my first house 3 months ago, and it has truly been an experience!

Thanks so much, from a new homeowner on her first do it yourself project to save money and make my husband less cranky! Lindsay 

Well… Lidsay… we don't want any cranky husbands!

First, you will have to remove all the doors. Make sure to put a small number on the back of the cabinet door and inside the corresponding cabinet. This will make your life so much easier when it comes time to replace the cabinet doors.

Remove all the hardware.

The wood needs to be stripped of all sealers. The gloss has to go. This can be done with a combination of strippers and sanding. You don't need to strip out the oak stain color…or bleach the color out. The wood just needs to be raw enough to accept stain.

Now you must clean all the wood with TSP Trisodium Phosphate which will get all the oils and dirt off the wood. 

Just to make sure any tiny things are not left over… wipe with a TACK CLOTH .

Okay… time for new stain. Try staining in a small area of cabinets that are hidden from view. This is your trial spot. The stain can be a cherrywood stain or other stains in that color range that give you the color you want. Stain is cheap… try a few different ones… or mix some. 

The stain needs to dry… you are looking for the color not the finish. The color needs to be as close to cherry wood as you can get.

When you have the cabinets stained… it's time to seal the deal! A HIgh Quilaity OIL POLYURETHANE sealer will protect your new finish and bring out the color. This will also make the cabinets look new and clean!

I hope this was helpful… and that you have great results! 

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 11:54 pm and is filed under Choosing Colors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.