Kitchen cabinets

[Cheryl]

When we moved into this house almost 5 years ago, we decided to redo the cabinets.  Well, we haven't done anything to them yet and I'm growing tired of looking at them.

Our house was built in 1952 and I believe these are the original cabinets as they're solid wood and structurally they're in good condition.  They are pine but a previous owner painted them white.  In some places, the paint is peeling and they look bad with stains and spots.  What I'm wondering is should we sand and repaint them or would you stain them? 

My kitchen doesn't receive a lot of natural light and I'm afraid if we stain the cabinets a somewhat dark color, we'll make it seem even darker in there. 

What color are your cabinets?  Are you satisfied with them or would you change it if you could?  Any ideas are greatly appreciated!

[greyhoundgirl]

My kitchen also doesn't get a lot of natural light.  It has one small window on the west side of the house.  The cabinets were white when we moved in, but we had that water leak a few months later and had to replace them.  We did a "whitewash" look over the natural wood, which gives them a cream colored appearance but with some wood texture showing through, if that makes sense.  I mostly like them, but they are in need of being done again or painted, so am in the same boat.  We used the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations kit on our main bath cabinets and they came out great, so I think that is our plan when we get around to the kitchen.  It comes with a deglosser and pads kind of like you'd scrub dishes with...these take off the paint or finish and help the new paint to adhere.

[greyhoundgirl]

Here's a link to what I'm talking about:  http://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/transformations  I don't know if you remember Dawn from the old site, but she and her hubby like to remodel and she clued me in to these when we were thinking we'd have to install new cabinets in the bathroom (it's a long bathroom and cabinets to fit would have been pricey).

This second link is specifically to the light colored kit:  http://www.rustoleum.com/en/product-catalog/consumer-brands/transformations/cabinet-transformations-light-kit

My own cabinets look much like the ones submitted in the "after" picture by Asheia Hines under the light kits.

[Rooney]

Cheryl, I would think that it would be more difficult to stain them than to repaint.  With the repainting, you could just throw on a primer and repaint any color you like.  It would also most likely get rid of the stains fairly easily.  I know someone that repainted theirs (they did the knobs in a contrasting color and everything, this was in an older house as well) It took her kitchen from looking old and dingy to really pretty. It looked like a cute little cottage kitchen, adorable.  It was time consuming though.  I would just go to your home improvement store (paint department), take a picture of what they look like now and tell them what you are wanting to do.  They should be able to show you the type of paint that you would need to use (or stain, if that is what you choose).  I would also find a good online instructional video because they usually have helpful hints to make the job easier or better (stuff that otherwise you might not have considered).  My cabinets are oak, but they are new, so yours are probably constructed much better.  They don't make anything as well nowadays.   Will you show us the finished product?  I just love dramatic before and afters on do-it-youself projects.

[Cheryl]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I can tell this could get expensive because just looking at pictures of cabinet makeovers has made me want new counter tops. .