What can I do to return the white color on my kitchen cabinets besides painting them

What brand of cabinets? Who built the hood? What is it’s depth? Who Finished it? How long has this been installed? What type of hood blower do you have? Is this externally vented? How often fo you clean, and with what products and methods?

Only above the stove? What are they made of? Heat damage from the stove?

I have also been suspecting heat damage from the stove. I have tried lysol, damp soapy cloth but no success. I’ve even tried the magic eraser too.

@live_wire_oak My home was a new build 2018 August. The cabinet company was contracted by our builder out of Dallas. The hood is externally vented. I chose the designs and they constructed/went with how I wanted them to look. Unfortunately, I don’t know the type of hood blower.

Again, without know what the cabinets are made of and what the finish is it is impossible to answer you. Even then it may still be impossible but without that info we have no where to start.

I found some additional info. The kitchen cabinet wood is Paint grade poplar. MDF Panel. The cabinet maker only provides unfinished cabinets. This is true as I remember a separate painting crew car in to paint everything including the cabinets. The depth of the hood above the stove is 20 inches. As far as the finish, I looked on the design gallery choices and it only lists the paint which was Sherwin Williams Extra White SW7006. Thank you all for your help

The finish was oil based semi gloss SW7006

If it is truly only above the stove, I would say it is directly related to the stove, probably heat. Only way to get them back white would be repaint. But then these cabinets will not match the others, it's a vicious cycle.

First, the design is not sufficiently deep to provide good capture area. It’s a pretty bad hood design. Read about good hood design. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2315922/wall-hoods-for-wok-cooking

Second, the fact that you don’t know anything about the insert says that it’s the cheapest worst quality that they could buy. Because...

Third. The Site painted cabinets coated with house paint are the cheapest possible route for a builder to go. So, that’s hand in hand with all of the above. It’s completely the wrong way to go for any type of durability or quality. But it looks good enough for a while. Enough to get you past the one year warranty. Sometimes. What you needed was a custom maker who finished in his clean room to KCMA standards. Or a manufactured line that was tested to KCMA standards. https://www.kcma.org/certifications/ansi-kcma-standard

Fourth. The finish that was there was ruined by the sandpaper abrasiveness of the Magic Eraser and the chemicals in PineSol. Pine oil is a terrible contaminant that blocks adhesion of any future finish. Someone could try to repaint those, but the existing contamination would bleed through and create issues with fisheye, bubbling, and just general adhesion.

For a for now fix, I’d remove the hood and buy a stainless one. It at least will be better ventilation, and cleanable. It addresses the immediate issue, and upgrades the style to a more modern direction both.

Long term, the rest of your cabinets will experience the issues that your hood cabinet has. The builder gave you below industry standard quality. It will not wear well. Having all of that contaminated porous coating sanded back to bare wood to start over with a higher quality and more durable coating will cost more than buying new cabinets. It’s very labor intensive.

If the existing coating was primed with the right stuff, and is adhering well enough now, and hasn’t been too contaminated by oils or silicone, then it might be possible to have them recoated with a professional grade coating at a later time. That would run you roughly 10K + for the cabibets in your house. How much + depends on how many cabinets and the details.

I’d reserve judgement on that project for a few years and just live with what is, and a new stainless hood, for now. And never ever scrub anything with a magic eraser, or use pine sol on anything that isn’t non porous. Or bleach. Or any one of a half dozen cleaners that ruin finishes and should only be used on non porous surfaces.

Dusting with a soft dampened microfiber is all most cabinets should need. If there has been spills, or you don’t fix your inadequate ventilation and have grease floating around attaching itself, then Dawn, a microfiber, and then rinsing the detergent residue, should be all of the big guns ever needed on cabinets. They are furniture. In your kitchen.

But half the junk you use on your furniture isn’t needed and is bad for it too. So no oil anything. No pledge. No freaking oil soap. Or orange glow. Or anything that has oil or silicone in it anywhere. No abrasives. Do you know that paper towels with recycled content are abrasive? Don’t use them on cabinets or furniture. Most “furniture care” products damage things. Planned obsolescence to keep the consumer buying at maximum.

Thanks for your advice. Sometimes people don’t know what they don’t know. As first time home builders went with a reputable builder and assumed everything would be ok. I agree with your idea in the last paragraph. Perhaps sanding down and repainting will fix for now. Thanks

It's perfectly possible that your paint job (throughout the home and kitchen) is absolutely fine except where it's getting hot. You have no reason to expect every painted cabinet in your home to fail just because it was done on site. Site-finished cabinets aren't as bulletproof, but you aren't exactly slinging bullets around, are you?

Look into your hood insert--if it is underpowered, an upgrade might reduce further heat damage. And you ARE using it, right? Use it every time, full speed.