refinishing kitchen cabinets

helenfny · #1 Nov 23, 2006, 09:57 AM

I'm a home improvement beginner with a capital B- so this question might be silly - but I have to start somewhere.
I have dark brown stained wood kitchen cabinets. I would like to lighten the stain to be lighter brown- or maybe even paint them a lighter color. Is it possible to stain a lighter brown on top of a darker brown? Would I have to sand it down? Any tips on sanding, staining etc would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

david p · Dec 28, 2006, 08:41 AM

helenfny,

I had dark brown stained cabinets until this summer. I cleaned them with a de-greaser and then sanded them. After that, I primed them with Benjamin Moore Fresh Start Primer. I don't mean to scare you, but after that I painted them white. I wasn't satisfied with how they looked until I had done 5 coats of high gloss Behr (Home Depot) paint. Now they look great. It is time consuming though. Good luck.



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