Yeah, I would sand it, but a lot of the primers these days claim they will stick without sanding. I would prime with Cover Stain or BIN. You could try an acrylic bonding primer like Zinnser 123 in latex, but sometimes previously stained and poly'd wood will have stains that latex primers can't lock out, which is why the safest thing to do would be to use a real stain killer.

Cleaning is most important. Zinsser has a new primer that says it will work on most anything,I have not seen it yet but, myself, would try it first before the smell of cover stain or bin, both of which will work for sure,I just cannot deal with the smell.

Here is a link that might be useful: primer

Thank you for the replies. Is there a specific product I should use to clean or will a good scrub with ammonia and water do the trick?

Dirtex is a good cleaner to use prior to painting.

As paintguy said.

Here is a link that might be useful: dirtex

"the ceiling has a pink hue to it"

That looks like cedar which has a natural reddish/pink hue,(western red cedar).

Have you thought about using a semi transparent stain which will keep the integrity of the grainig/knots of the wood, but can be done in many color ranges.

Thanks for the info on Dirtex.

Sierraeast, I'm no wood expert, to be sure. It's possible that it's cedar, but I tend to think not. When we moved a light fixture a couple years ago, the wood under it was decidedly "pine" looking. Most of the wood in the house had been "pickled" in an early 1990s renovation by the previous owners, and we've been slowly "unpickling," so I suspect that may have been done to the ceiling in the kitchen.

The semi-transparent stain isn't an option I thought of and i think I'll look into it a bit before I make a final decision. Thanks for the suggestion.

Funny, how silly we are. One homeowner comes in and wants natural wood, one comes in an pickles it, one comes in and wants to paint it. The next guy will come in and strip your paint off because they want natural wood.

You're so right parkplaza. Sometimes I wonder if I change this stuff not really because I don't like it but because I feel the need to put my "stamp" on it. I do like natural wood in some applications, but to me this whole pickling process that turned all the red oak floors in this house pink was a worse offense than any paint would be. Of course that's what the late '80s and early '90s were all about.