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jdykes · Sep 7, 2009, 05:56 PM

I am weighing my options between paying to have our cabinets refaced, or attempting to sand and refinish them myself.

We have good wooden cabinets but they have been painted and the previous owner "framed" each of them by nailing in other wood trim, and they are painted green.

Was looking on some feedback on sanding off the paint and appying a stain to them, and wanted to know if we could replace all doors and cabinets and expect to get a uniform look throughout. Having new doors and drawers would make the project much more manageable, but I wasn't sure how easy it would be to match them, and we also were not sure what to expect once we started sanding the paint off.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

ballengerb1 · Sep 7, 2009, 07:45 PM

If you want to keep the old I would use stripper and not sand. You can also price out just replacement door which come unfinished, tharts what I would recommend.

cyberheater · Sep 14, 2009, 06:57 AM

I have done this - here is my 2 cents.

Ballanger is correct, if you going to do this and you have many coats of paint, it's an awful long and messy project. You will need a stripper, not just sand.

"Refacing" from an actuall company is just as, if not more expensive then getting new cabinets. Check this out for yourself.

My suggestion is that if you want to make this job easier - getting new cab doors, and drawer fronts that you actually like would be easier. Then, your only paint removal would be on the surface of the cabinet faces. Fill in those cabinet hardware holes with some good filler after removing the paint.

After removing paint, sand down with a good orbital, and hand sand paper after cleaning. This will help the wood accept the stain more uniformly. Remember that the wood on the base of your cabinets may be different from what you may purchase for your doors, and drawers - so keep that in mind before staining.

Different wood types will result in a different stain color.

Clough · Sep 15, 2009, 11:36 PM

Hi, jdykes!

What are the exterior surface areas of the doors and drawer fronts like, please? Are they perfectly flat without any grooves or other fancy things on them in the wood?

Thanks!