The wood in my house is an ugly yellow-orange-ish color. I want to strip it and stain it with a nice color.

I wish I could tell you what kind of wood it is or what kind of finish is currently on it but I have no idea. All I know is that it is an ugly yellow-orange. As far as I know it isn't even a stain, it could be the natrual wood color. I didn't know wood could be this ugly though.

Can someone tell me what the pros/cons are of sanding it versus using a checmical stripper?

Or how can I tell if this is a stain versus the natural color? It doesn't look like there is anything on it. If it is the natural color, what should I do to darken it up.

Sorry about all these amateur questions but I am an ameteur.

When was your home built, please? Also, if you could provide some images for us here as to what you are dealing with, that would be helpful.

It could be wood that might just look better painted, or maybe a more natural stain and clear finish applied would also work. Just from your description, it sounds like it might have Blond-it stain on it, using Blond-it a lot was very prevalent in home construction during the 1950s.

Thanks!

My home was built in 1993. I can tell you that the same ugly color wood is used throughout the house. It trims every room, it is used for every door, and it is in the cabinets and drawers.

I will take some pictures and upload them tonight.

Thanks for the help

As soon as you said ugly yellow I thought of pine cabinets. If you have pine it can look yellow with just a sealer let alone a stain. Your best option may be a combination of striper and sanding. Stripper works fairly well but you still need to do additional pre work before you can stain. It might be helpful if you pull one drawer and practice on it, all the way to the new stain.

Attached are 4 pictures. I hope these help. I uploaded 5. 1 with flash close up, 1 with flash further away, 1 wishout flash close up, and 1 without flash further away. FInally, I have added one that is zoomed in quite a bit. Hopefully these will give you the right idea.

Its hard to capture the true ugly of this wood. The first time I tried photographing it, the camera actually broke in disgust. It was a sad moment for me

Well they don't look yellow from here. They look slightly brown. The wood is oak, the finish is probably lacquer, the color is probably something like "Colonial Oak" or "Colonial Maple" using Minwax names. The name of the color means nothing, each manufacture names it's colors differently. The finish is most likely a sprayed on tinted lacquer.

If the finish is indeed lacquer the most efficient removal would be with lacquer thinner. The cabinets should be taken down and taken outside for this unless adequate ventilation can be set up. To test for type of finish wipe a small inconspicuous spot with lacquer thinner.

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Originally Posted by hkstroud

Well they don't look yellow from here. They look slightly brown. The wood is oak, the finish is probably lacquer, the color is probably some thing like "Colonial Oak" or "Colonial Maple" using Minwax names. The name of the color means nothing, each manufacture names it's colors differently. The finish is most likely a sprayed on tinted lacquer.

If the finish is indeed lacquer the most efficient removal would be with lacquer thinner. The cabinets should be taken down and taken outside for this unless adequate ventilation can be set up. To test for type of finish wipe a small inconspicuous spot with lacquer thinner.

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Yes they do appear to be oak. But, in difference to my fine colleague here, hkstroud, I'm going to have to take exception to the advice that using lacquer thinner alone is going to remove the finish. Using lacquer thinner might not even remove any finish at all but might clean it up a bit. If that's a high-solids content lacquer that is already on those surface areas, which it most likely is, then your going to need something much stronger than lacquer thinner to get the finish off the surface areas.

I would recommend a heavy paste remover and then using a lacquer thinner to clean things up after the removal of the finish. I just use paper towels folded into quarters in order to do the cleaning with the lacquer thinner after doing the heavy stripping. You may need to apply a stripper twice in order to get all of the finish off.

I do totally agree that the colors look very much like the ones that you will find using Minwax stains before applying a clear-coat of lacquer as well as using adequate ventilation no matter what you do.

With the door faces as well as any drawer fronts that you might need to refinish, my recommendation would be to remove them and take them outside to work on them. Working on them while they are placed in a horizontal position, you will get much more satisfactory results when stripping them and then subsequently staining and applying a finish to them.

Thanks for providing the images! How would you like them to look? What is on them shouldn't be all that hard to strip off following all of the directions and precautions that you will find on the can of stripping solution. Oak is so open-grained, that it's easy to change the color of it. But, it might not be so easy to get an existing color out of it by stripping, because it is so open-grained. A lot of sanding using a palm sander may have to happen.

Thanks!

Thanks so much for the help. I could have spent all day on this and not gotten anywhere. I am not too picky on what I want it to look like. Just something darker and browner. It is somewhat hard to see in the picture but the wood is more on the orange or yellow side. I am going to be a weekend warrior and try to get this done with the long weekend.

A few follow up questions:

1. Do you recommend a certain brand of heavy paste remover and thinner?
2. Is there anything specific I should look for in the heavy paste remover and thinner I get?
3. It is easy to take drawers and cabinet doors outside but is increasingly difficult to remove the cupboards themselves. Should I spend the time to take these out or would opening the windows in my house be sufficient?
4. Should any and all sanding be done with a palm sander instead of a power sander?
5. Is there a specific type of sandpaper you would recommend?

Sorry I am such an idiot but if anyone has any questions about the Chicago Cubs I would be more than willing to answer.

Minwax does make a stain mixed right in with polyurethane. You could buy some and do a test on the back side of a door. Each coat you apply will darken your finish, assuming you buy a darker color than Colonial Maple which is what you may have. Both posters are right on the money, its oak

Ok... so I bought all my supplies. I am going to be putting stripper on tonight. The bottle says to leave it on anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours. Anybody have any ideas on how long I should keep it on to be sure I get all of this crap off?

I would strongly suggest that you try this one one small place on one cabinet. Test out the stripper to see if it will perform the way you expect, some are not as easy as others. What did you buy? Is you stripper the type that developes a film which should not be broken until its time to scrap?

A suggestion while putting the stripper on,, cover it with wax paper,it keeps the fumes locked in and does a better job removing the finish.

KBC

I got some eco friendly citrus stripper stuff. It does develop into a filmy paste that needs scraped off.

I will try it on a hard to see spot to see how it works but is there any recommendation on how long you think I should leave it on? Ballpark?

Thanks for the wax paper tip.

If its citrus and develops its own film the wax paper is not needed as much as with petroleum based strippers. I'd apply and allow to work for an hour, they say up to 24 hours but that is generally just to allow extra work time like over night. It will have done all its going to do in an hour.

I would not recommend the Polyshades by minwax unless you are really not picky. Any stain and poly combo seals with the first coat making subsequent coats borderline useless.
Also, Stripper is only going to take of the clear coating, it will not take out the stain. If you want to do that you have to use wood bleach (oxalic acid)

I finished my cabinets and thought I would upload a few pictures so everyone can see how they turned out. Again, it is hard to tell in the pictures but they look so much better. Thanks to everyone for all your help.

You did a very nice job, when can you come over to do mine?

Congratulations on a job well done.