The cabinets will be more durable if you sand them down to raw wood. This is because the primer will stick best to raw then to some slick old finish, plus the primer can penetrate raw wood. It can't penetrate if you are painting over varnish or some other shiny surface. Personally, I think that if you are planning to sand your cabinets down to raw, then there is no need to clean them at all because you will be sanding through whatever you cleaned, it's a waste of time. It's not necessary to completely strip your cabinets though in order to paint them. Primers and paints are pretty good these days that you can still make them pretty durable by just painting over the finish. It just depends on how particular you are and how far you want to take the project.

Yes. And it'll look better than Martha.

CLC, I did mine about a year ago with instructions I found on DIY (I think). First I took off the doors and the hardware and washed everything down with TPC (I think that's the right name). You can find it in the paint dept. in a little carton like milk comes in. You mix it up in warm water. It's supposed to clean off all dirt, grease, etc. It did a great job! Next I sanded all surfaces with a fine sandpaper then cleaned with a tack cloth. Then I painted one coat, sanded and tack clothed (?) when it was dry, and painted a second coat. I used interior enamel in a gloss finish. So far they still look pretty good, but I suspect I should have used some kind of oil-based paint since I'm pretty sure the original finish was oil-based. And I should have used high gloss because I wanted much more shine than I got. We didn't take the cabinets out. I painted the doors and drawers out in the garage, but painted the bases where they were. It was a really big job! I took 5 days off work and it ended up taking all that time and several more weekends to get it all done. And most of the doors don't want to close all the way after having the hardware removed and reinstalled. But they sure look better than the old, tired, out of date pickled oak finish! Donna

I've had lots of experience with Fine Paints of Europe Eco (water based alkyd), Hollandlac (solvent based alkyd), and Benjamin Moore Advance (water based alkyd). Lots of experience = ~ 20 gallons / eurogallons of each type / brand. Both water based and oil based alkyds of any brand will yellow over time if they are not exposed to sufficient amounts of UV light (i.e., sunlight). Water based alkyds are much less prone to yellowing than a solvent based alkyd. But yellowing will occur. In a kitchen with full overlay doors, you're most likely to notice it on the portion of the frame covered by the door. With water based alkyds, you're likely to notice it more with a pure white. With a creamy white, you might not see it at all. You will definitely see it with a solvent based alkyd. With products like Advance, there's really no reason to use a solvent based oil. And despite FPE's marketing materials, Hollandlac has a very steep learning curve to get a good lay down by brush. I would recommend that you go with Advance. It's less expensive and readily available across the country at Benjamin Moore paint dealers. Prior to Benjamin Moore coming out with Advance, I exclusively used ECO on both my interior and exterior door and trims. In my experience, for your application and color selected, ECO will get you nothing except less money in your wallet. I have brushed and sprayed all of these finishes. I own a Fuji HVLP Sprayer with multiple tips that was about $900. DO NOT. Let me repeat DO NOT, spray shellac based primers indoors. Atomized solvents are explosion hazards. Shellac is alcohol based and extremely flammable. Unless you are capable of building a spray booth with an explosion proof fan to direct vent outdoors, don't even attempt it. It's even worse doing it in place like a basement where many solvents, being heavier than air, sink to floor. Add a gas fired hot water heater or gas dryer to the mix and you've created a major hazard. Now others may have done it without consequence. They should be grateful, but it doesn't mean it's safe. If I close my eyes and cross the street and don't get hit by a car does that mean it's safe? I hope I made my point, now back to your doors. You have one major thing going for you, they are oak doors. Why is this good? Because oak is deeply grained and will hide brush marks. For some reason, people become obsessed with filling in the grain of oak before painting it. I'm not sure if they find it objectionable, want to eradicate all evidence of the substrate being oak, or are blindly following what someone posted on a blog. I think painted oak with the grain texture still visible is very attractive. I would recommend that you do not attempt to fill in the grain. It will create LOTS and LOTS more work for a less than satisfactory result. The doors will look beautiful with the painted grain texture. And you won't have to spray them because if you apply the paint properly, the brush marks will be masked by the grain. Before I talk about application, I want to provide some background. I am obsessive with my paint finishes and pursuing perfection when I paint. Here's a picture of my brush library which has about 22 different brushes - over $300 worth of brushes for all different kinds of paints and situations. The brands are Purdy, Wooster, & Omega - the Benjamin Moore branded brush you see is made exclusively for Benjamin Moore by Wooster. I'm providing this background because I absolutely cringe when I see all these popular blogs painting cabinets with rollers. Rollers leave a behind a stipple pattern which resembles the skin of an orange. The longer the roller nap, the more pronounced and prominent the stipple. Now some people only care about whether the door is covered in paint and are perfectly content. They don't care about brush marks, roller stipple, painting across the grain, etc. If it's all the same color, they are happy. And sadly, the blogosphere is full "how-to's" advocating this approach and how lovely their cabinets came out. Then they post a close up picture and it looks like crap! Don't be one of those people. USE A BRUSH. Now as others have posted, door prep is absolutely critical to a great outcome. Depending upon the state you are in, you may not be able to find TSP due to it's high phosphate content and environmental regulations. TSP is a great cleaner for degreasing, which is why it's great for cleaning kitchen cabinets prior to painting. But it has a downside. If you don't rinse properly and thoroughly (e.g., multiple rinses with clean, fresh water each time) it will leave a residue behind which can interfere with adhesion. Fortunately, you can get things scrupulously clean with good old fashioned ammonia available at your local Target for a little over a buck: Target Ammonia Ammonia leaves no residue behind. In fact, if you read the label on Zinsser products, they specifically state do not use TSP. They say to use ammonia for cleaning. If you call and talk with Zinsser, they will tell you that customers were having too many problems with TSP residue because they weren't rinsing properly. Other household degreasing cleaners can also be used like Simple Green but it is important that you rinse thoroughly multiple times. I will add that I have used TSP many times, but then I always triple rinse. Ammonia is usually my first choice. So now that you've cleaned your doors. The next step is to fill any door dings or hardware screw holes you won't be using, etc. For this, I like Zinsser Ready Patch: Ready Patch You can find this at Lowe's and Home Depot. It can take multiple layers sometimes because it tends to shrink a bit as it drys. Do not use any of the light weight spackles you often see recommended. They can't hold a candle to Ready Patch. When you use the Ready Patch, be careful that you don't glop it on and start filling in the surrounding grain of the oak. If that happens, after you sand, you'll have a smooth(er) patch on that area of the door that will stick out. Now there's more fun to be had - sanding and/or deglossing. Sanding will smooth and remove surface imperfections and degloss (e.g., scuff) the surface at the same time. But if the surface doesn't need to have surface imperfection removed, you can also degloss with green scotchbrite pads. You need to degloss to promote adhesion. Now many products tout that they stick to gloss surfaces but you're going through all this work and effort so sand and/or degloss as appropriate. There are no short cuts to a great finish. A perfect tool to purchase to make the sanding go faster and better is the Porter Cable 1/4 Sheet Orbital Finishing Sander: Link to Amazon They've changed the design a bit over the years, but it's still the best sander I've found for finish work. It's less aggressive than a random orbital sander and has a square base that allows you to get into corners. It doesn't require special shaped or hook 'n loop expensive sand papers. You'll still need to hand sand to get into nooks and crannies and for rounded profiles. Once the sanding/deglossing is done, I then vacuum the doors. I check the nooks and crannies for residual dust and use a canned air spray if needed to clear it. At this point, some folks then like to use what's called a tack cloth. It's cheesecloth impregnated with a sticky compound that captures and hold onto the dust when you wipe it across the surface. I don't like them. I don't use them. If I'm using a water based primer, I wipe them down with either an old T-shirt misted with water (or a thoroughly rung out damp sponge). this can cause the wood grain to raise. Although raised grain won't be too much of on issue for oak. Plus, the oak is still sealed from the factory finish unless you sanded so aggressively you removed it (unlikely). But I don't worry about that because the water based primer raises the grain as well. If I'm using a solvent based primer, I use an old T-shirt dipped in mineral spirits. Now you're ready to prime. I don't see the point of using shellac based primer such as BIN unless you're priming over knot holes or trying to block stains or smells. As I mentioned before, shellac primers are alcohol based and dry extremely fast. They also smell awful. They can be somewhat difficult to sand. Lately, I've been using Zinsser Smart Prime. It's a water based primer that is formulated to perform like an oil. It has great adhesion, even to glossy surfaces. BUT STILL SAND/DEGLOSS BEFORE PRIMING for the best, most professional looking results. Smart Prime sands beautifully and you can get a nice, super smooth finish after sanding. It has a consistency like greek yogurt. I brush it out very, very thin and like to apply two coats. You won't find Smart Prime in the Big Box stores. You need to visit a dedicated paint store. Now it's time to SAND AGAIN. Yes, you will be doing a lot of sanding. This isn't an aggressive sanding, and it should be done by hand. You don't want to break through the primer. Lightly sanding will smooth the surface (remember the grain might have raised a bit from the H2O base primer) and remover any contaminants that might have gotten onto the surface while it was drying. With sanding complete, I vacuum, use canned air as needed, and wipe down again with a well wrung out sponge or lightly misted old T-shirt. Now you're ready for the first finish coat. This is a good point for me to break. I'm on the East Coast and it's after midnight. I'll post more later. The bottom line is you can do this, you can do this yourself, and you can get terrific results that won't look like the hack jobs that many post on their blogs. But it will take LOTS of time and patience. It can get tedious and monotonous. I find projects like this a great time to catch up on Podcasts. More later.