Try General Finishes High Performance Topcoat. I'm experimenting with it on red oak. It very much preserves the natural color of the wood. So much so that I'm wondering how to enhance the grain just a wee bit before I topcoat w/ it. No yellowing (on red oak) whatsoever. General Finishes contact phone # 800-783-8050. They're located in Wisconsin so Central Time Zone. I've called them before & will give them another call for suggestions on slightly enhancing the grain of red oak. It's available in satin, semi-gloss and gloss. McFeeley's has the best price that I've found. McFeeley's Oh, the stuff is super easy to apply. (I'm using a foam brush but it's sposed to spray nicely, too.) The only complaints that I've read about it is that it maybe dries too fast. I ordered some extender but haven't tried it yet since I'm only doing small pieces so far. Here is a link that might be useful: General Finishes High Performance Topcoat

Thank you for asking. Unfortunately, we have put our kitchen reno on hold. We were advised to wait until the economy rebounds. But, my husband and I are closer in agreement. We have decided to go with a mix of white and light wood for the cabinets. I have found some great inspirational pictures. I still love the white oak but maybe with less wood cabinets maple will be ok. I checked Durasupreme and they have white oak but not in the shade we like. Also, Durasupreme got less than good reviews online. Plato has the white oak shade we like - nude cream - but the estimate came in really high. I still hope to get my dream kitchen.

bry911, I watched that same video last night. I was amazed that his third experiment was successful and gave me hope. At the end of last year when I questioned the finishing guy, he said he is going to hand-sand to remove the top-coat. And I doubt he/they will try to educate themselves. So I am going to put something in writing and send it to the owner to sign-off that if the finisher sands through the veneer, is not able to do an adequate job of color blending, or causes any other irreparable damage that all the doors be replaced with matching wood. Perhaps that will make him pay attention. They did do a good job for the most part. The biggest errors have resulted from the owner trying to take shortcuts and rush the installers. When the fridge panels had to be repaired (but were replaced instead), the installer told the owner that he needed to replace the large pop-up door above the fridge at the same time. But the owner didn't want to do that. That door is such a different color than the other two batches of wood. If it had been replaced then it wouldn't stand out visually. And then the finishing guy wouldn't have applied the whitewash trying to mask the differences. But, 20/20 hindsight and all that. Here are a couple of other pics to show the whole design. The doors above the cooktop have the Blum Aventos Lift Up System with Servo-Drive. And the niche in the island has floating quartz that is supported with hidden, inset support brackets. I did a lot of research to find out if that was a possibility and then found a custom stone installation company that had done something similar before. They were more than willing to take on that aspect of the project.

Yes, you need to remove the finish coat (which is probably polyurethane) before you can stain them another color. This will probably remove some of the color of the stain depending how the cabinet was stained and what it was stained with and how you remove it. You have a couple options to remove the finish. 1) You can use a chemical stripper like Citristrip. 2) You can sand the doors by hand (Don't use a power sander of any kind! You're not trying to take of six layers of paint or remove any of the wood.) 3) You may be able to take the doors and drawer fronts to be dipped. A company will soak them in a vat of chemical stripper. It's expensive, but can be worth it for pieces with lots of edges, nooks and crannies that will hold up to it. Then you use a chemical stripper on the frame. For that vanity, #1 is absolutely your best choice. #2 is also reasonable. #3 isn't worth it for something with such straight lines. If you're trying to get the color out, too, that's a whole additional process. If not, and you just want them darker, you can stain them. Doing something like this yourself isn't "hard," but it does take skill and practice. Getting them an exact color is very challenging and you have no test pieces. It also involves a lot of labor and time. You can hire a furniture re-finisher to do it for you. But they are not going to guarantee you an exact color. If you're very particular about the color you want, it still might turn out greyer or redder or something you don't want.