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Design Dilemma Woodworking Bathrooms

Need help. Do these stained KraftMaid cabinets look unfinished?

3 years ago

I have had sleepless nights since these bathroom cabinets arrived. I have been told by cabinet design person that ‘it’s just the way the wood took the stain’. I think they look like they need another coat of stain. I’m not sure what to do. I don’t want to paint them. What are your thoughts?

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Comments (7)

PRO
JAN MOYER
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
You have a charcoal stain ON MAPLE. ? No, to a second coat. this is the nature of maple, the hard and "not open " grain. A second coat will look no different, only WORSE, and muddy.

If you are unhappy with the look ? the only answer is paint, to whatever color you may want.. With proper prep and a spray booth.

If you selected the finish from a small sample? Yup......that is my bet. Different parts of the wood will accept stain differently. It's the nature of MAPLE.
melle_sacto is hot and dry in CA Zone 9/
3 years ago
Not sure what look you were going for but it seems liveable and not unusually splotchy. Once you add hardware to the doors and drawers and other elements to the space it should be fine. The variation shows the depth and interest that you might hope for with natural wood.
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frankrizzo1
Original Author
3 years ago
I ordered a door before I selected them and it looks perfect! Yes it shows variation but not like the base. I wish the designer had warned me of that because I would have ordered full overlay which would hide the base.
Do you know if I can put full overlay doors on these cabinets?
melle_sacto is hot and dry in CA Zone 9/
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
I don't know about the doors... KraftMaid may offer a full overlay option but that's an expensive fix.

If you're issue is mainly with the base unit maybe you could paint only the portions that are showing to get it to blend better.

That's what I would do before ordering new doors or repainting the entire cabinet.
PRO
JAN MOYER
3 years ago
You need to take up the unhappy factor, and the door/drawer face discussion, WITH your designer. : ) Monday.
catbuilder
3 years ago
If you can't change the doors, you can replace the middle drawer fronts with wider ones to cover the face frames. Changing just the middle ones would be cheaper than replacing all of them, and give you the same look.

Are there no filler pieces on the ends? What's with that huge gap above the baseboard on the left?
frankrizzo1
Original Author
3 years ago
Thanks for your comments. I am going to get full overlay on the drawers which should do the trick.

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