ZipStrip is a thick product (stays in place) that will remove paint. It contains methylchloride, which has to be used with good ventiation - open doors / windows. It is very effective in removing paint. Depending upon how many layers, if may take more than one application. I finish the stripping by applying ZipStrip and use steel wool to remove the last particles of finish. Peel Away doesn't have fumes. You brush it on, cover with a plastic/paper film, and let it set a day or two. I've had good luck with it too. For either one you need good rubber gloves, eye protection. Also you need to mask and cover the places where you don't want the paint removed. Have found this to be a sharp scraper than can get into the crevices: Here is a link that might be useful: Check out this Spectrum Razor Scraper

Hi, I once had to strip a 12ft tall oak mantel/overmantel. It had the works in terms of carving and trim, including dentils. I carefully removed the strip of moulding that had the dentils cut into it, and immersed it in a trough (a section of half-round gutter works well for this) of stripper 'til the sides of the dentils were clean. I was able to use a sharpened putty knife to clean up those end-grain edges pretty well. Then the mldg can be sanded before being reinstalled. If the wood is stained with a dark un-removable deep red color, it probably isn't cherry, but birch stained to resemble mahogany. This was terribly popular in the first couple of decades of the last century for architectural woodwork. The stain is an aniline dye, and will bleed through some kinds (many kinds) of paint. An antidote if you want to tone down the red is to overlay a coat of a greenish stain; minwax black walnut stain is good for this. The end result is a warm deep brown. Casey

"Oil over Latex or latex over oil": my 2 cents; First, the controversy largely applies to EXTERIOR paints. Why? Latex paints expand greatly when heat is applied to them ( think rapid surface temperature gain when hit by the sun). Oil paints are brittle from the outset and get more so with age. They are bonded to one another and the latex paint wants to expand, the oil does not - bad scenario. It can literally pull the paint right off a house, especially older homes with many coats of underlying oil paint. Second, pertaining to interior paint: The early generations of "latex" paint (1950's,60's) were exactly that. Many had natural latex resins in them and had adhesion problems when going over the old standby oil paints. The "latex" name has become generic for water based paints. After the initial real latex paints, along came many resin blends such as with acetates. These too came up short on adhesion. Most of today's premium "latex" paints are actually 100%acrylic based. Acrylics have excellent adhesion to oil paints. May I point out that most of today's white carpenter glues are acrylics, obviously because of its adhesive properties. I purposely keep samples of door casings to show customers, which have been base coated with high gloss oil paint. Over this I have applied 100% acrylic paint directly to the oil paint without any preparation, as I wanted to see the worst case scenario. The customer is invited to try to scrape off the acrylic paint. So far, not one has been able to do so! I also have a sample which has been finished coated with our new water based alkyd based paint. It too survives frequent scrapping attempts. As with any new layer of paint, surface prep is critical, especially in kitchens where airborne cooking oils and oily human hands constantly come in contact with the surface of the cabinets. Clean the cabinets and either use a deglosser or give a good scuff sanding to assure good bonding of the new paint, whether oil or "latex".

Your kitchen is really beautiful but that is a lot of wood. Whitewash might create more texture but maybe a milk paint or actual paint could lighten up the space and make it a little more country modern. If it were my kitchen I might keep some of the wood and update countertops and maybe the ceilings. It certainly is a beautiful space. Here are some kitchens below that use the wood but add some areas of light or paint. Just ideas that might help think about the space. Here are a few ideas that come to mind. update without paintpainting cabinets never again this one looks like white wash I love the wood but the ceiling and counters help balance the space