This is a mix of cherry and java over faded 1980s walnut. You can "refresh" a color by going a shade darker, easily go several shades darker, but not go lighter. I tried the Minwax gel stain and it was hard to get even color because it dried too fast. One trick to getting even color is to wipe the stain on with no excess ... do a really thin coat wiped on with a lint-free rag. The heavy "pottery barn dark" cabinets you see are thickly swabbed on - almost painted - with multiple coats.

lynn2006, I'd love to see a picture of your cabinets - was the honey maple stain by General Finishes? busybme, you are totally right - white cabinets would look best, but I'm just not confident that I could do a good job painting them. It would really bug me if they didn't turn out perfectly. I figure I have a better chance with the gel stain. Do you have ideas on how to lighten them other than painting them? Maybe just a stain to darken them a bit - so they are not orangey and don't match the floor exactly. ??

We used the top half of the china cabinet I inherited in the library of our former house. I had a plain box base made to hold it, stained it to the same color, and put it behind the small end of an L-shaped sofa, because with its own base, it was too tall to fit in our 8' rooms. It actually started life as a secretary-bookcase, but my great-grandfather, who bought it at auction, only bought the top half, and had a nice but distinctly inferior bottom made for it then. I've tried to find the other half, but with no success. Sigh. So much for its potential value. But I digress ... I put a few groups of nice old books, a couple of pewter pitchers, a plate or two, and some other attractive things in it. I also lined the back wall with a piece of cream jacquard fabric to lighten the whole business. Not sure how well you can see, but here it was: It was traditional in old houses to line the doors of large secretary-bookcases like this one with gathered green cloth to protect the books from sunlight, so you'd be in good company if you decided to put fabric in yours.

I accidentally touched my stain before it was dry and it left a smear on top. What I did next was not a good choice. I used the rag that had a little stain left on it and wiped slightly over the area. BAD MOVE. This 2"x10" streak was darker than all the rest. After searching the internet for ways to fix this mistake, I really didn't find many solutions other than to sand back down or use mineral spirits. I am not a fan of mineral spirits or anything that strong....so I decided to use rubbing alcohol to correct this mistake. Although it won't remove the stain totally, it did lighten the area up enough so that it's not noticeable. This is a much better alternative for me. I would imagine that it will remove the stain fairly well if it has not had time to sit very long. I used it after about 3 days of sitting and it helped with the removal of the top layer. Just thought I would post a solution for a smaller scale mistake.