Do you have a preference over what you think looks better? Are you thinking the painting won't take as long as the staining? I think either one is a lot of work, so go with what you like best. I have medium oak cabinets in my kitchen, which I hate. I was originally thinking about painting them, but now I'm thinking that staining them darker will be easier and hold up better. I'd love to see pictures of yours if you have any. I don't know anything about it, but I've heard people mention Cabinet Coat when painting their cabinets. Hopefully Patricia and some of the others with more experience will chime in.

Laurie

Ditto on wanting to see pics of your newly stained cabinets... and also info on the process. I wrestle with this whole thing myself!

Hello,
Thanks for your input! Here is the pic of my bathroom cabinets that I stained:

My island:

Current Oak:

Here is the link, I was looking for:
http://girlwithaspirin.com/4538/kitchen.html

Thanks! Donna

Thanks for the pictures, Donna. DH and I were just discussing staining the cabinets last night. He told me it would be too hard and would look terrible. He wants to paint them white so I don't know if it would really be as bad as he says or if he's just trying to convince me to go with what he wants. We have the paneled doors also and he said I could never get all the stain out of the crevices. How exactly did you remove the stain from the doors (or did you)? He said I would have to use a liquid of some kind to strip the finish and it would take forever. Is the reason you were thinking of painting this time because the stain was such a hard job?

Laurie

Hi,
Well the bathroom cabinet was the first thing I've ever stripped & then stained. I don't remember the name of the brand offhand but I can look next time I go to the store, Anyway, I used a liquid stripped. You paint it on, wait a specific amount of time & then I used a plasic spackle thing with napkins and just basically scrapped off the majority. I then used a little wire brush in all the groves. I had to use a little more liquid stripper with the wire brush. I waited a day and then used sandpaper - didn't take too long, I just lightly sanded. Then there was a step 2 to prepare the wood. I wiped that on, waited 1 day. Using a foam brush, started staining. I have a big tub & put a board over it - which I layed the cabinet doors on 2x2 and let dry - I have a little fan that I kept on. I used a very dark stain so it did take a few coats and a few extra days to dry. I used Olympian stain. After putting it all back together - I used a poly, left the doors open & put the fan on high. It dried pretty fast. I was really happy with it and made a frame to go around the mirror & stained that too.

I then stained my fireplace and tried to use miniwax but it wouldn't penetrate and I wound up wiping it off and used the Olympian which I could only find at Lowes.

Did you look at the post from Girlwaspirin? I have never painted cabinets before & am afraid of it looking "cheap" but I love what she did!

Post of picture! I really really dislike my oak cabinets. I sit here with my computer and keep glancing at the cabinets - I could easily get up and start stripping them!!! ha ha

Another oak cabinet hater here! Mine are just hideous. I have been thinking I'd like to stain them a dark cherry, but I am afraid my tiny kitchen with low lighting might look too closed up with dark cabinets. The floor is rather dark, and my countertops will be here in 3 weeks, which are black. All this makes me wonder whether I should just paint them white, but as someone else said, I don't want it to look cheap.

And how does one go about painting cabinets correctly? Do you have to remove all the clear coat stuff and sand it down to the bare wood like you would with re-staining, or do you just go right over the clear coat stuff with paint?

I keep going back and forth with this and can't seem to make a decision.

I was going to paint mine also but decided I didn't want to deal with the paint chipping. So I started practicing in my master bath. I'm using Minwax Gel stain in mahogany. It took me a while to get the hang of it. First I cover the whole door using a sponge brush. The can says wait 3 minutes. Usually by the time you covered a few doors it's time to go back to the first. Then I use a rag and wipe it all off. It leaves a thin coat on it. ( alot darker than regular oak). If you like it like it is then fine, if not wait at least a day to be sure. Give it a light sanding (very light) and then do the process again. This will darken it even more. Then give it a coat of polyurethane.
Mine went from ugly builders oak to rich mohagany. I love it. Sorry no pictures yet. I highly recommend that you practice before you start on the kitchen.
About the crevices, you can wipe it off (carefully) or leave it and it looks like the glaze on white cabinets. It actually looks nice IMO.

champagne- I forgot to say that if you want to paint them then you have to sand first, then prime them, paint (at least two coats) and then cover with polyurethane.

mlraff53 - You have to take pictures! The cabinets I've seen stained with the gel stain didn't have the crevices. Mine do and I've been worried about how to handle that. My husband used gel done once and he hated it because he said it streaked real bad. Did you have any problems with that? Can you give some more details on your technique? You said it took a while to get the hang of it. What problems did you have when you first tired it?

Laurie

I painted my cabinets and am really happy with the look. They were a pinish white washed oak before. We sanded and cleaned them really well, but you don't have to take them down to the bare wood. Just rough them up a little. We bought a special primer so the paint would stick better and did a couple of light coats of that.

Then we did two or three coats of paint. I should have sealed mine because with three kids, they are chipping a bit. But anyways, here are the before and afters!

BEFORE kitchen:

AFTER kitchen:

BEFORE master bath:

AFTER bath:

Another builder oak hater here :)
We plan on painting ours white. Although now we're thinking of something dark, either stain or paint on the bottom cabs. And white on the top. We'll have to see.

Donna, your stained cabs look great. But, yikes! It does sound like a lot of work. Course, so does painting.
Probably why so many of us who hate our oak, have lived with it as long as we have :)

I'd LOVE to see your mirror, if you could post a pic. I'm pretty sure we have the exact thing going on. We have the big, cheesy mirror that goes from the counter, and up the wall. I'd love to take it down and replace it with two smaller mirrors. But, dh has been talking about the frame idea, too.
We plan on painting the cabs in there black. Least, I think that was the last idea :)

Citymomof3 - what color is your after bathroom walls? Beautiful transformation!

Thank you! It's Olympic paint from Lowe's and it's called Timeless Taupe!

Donna, I love your dark stained cabinets...could I ask what stain you used so as to get it so evenly distributed that it minimized the oak grain? I've tried a gelstain on the inside of one door so far and it *accentuates* the grain, but I personally prefer a stained to a painted look so I'm trying to find a stain that will work.

Thanks for any details in terms of stain names or process...

Cityofmom, what exactly did you do to the bathroom cabinents that looks absolutely divine...?

Citymom, both your kitchen and bathroom look great. I have oak cabinets in my bathroom and am considering painting them darker. I am getting granite tops put on this week. What color did you use on your bathroom cabinets?

I also bought a Mirrormate mirror frame for my large mirror and am going to put it up after the granite is in.