It’s almost Valentine’s Day, the most stupidly expensive overhyped day of the year. Well just between you and me, I don’t need roses or fancy chocolates or build-a-bears in pink tutus to get me all hot and bothered. I need wood. Big strong wood. And I’m not talking cherry cabinets and glossy glazed finishes, here. I’m talking ’bout this:
Shut your mouth!
Or actually, please don’t. Because we need to discuss the viagrability of kitchen wood.
Everything about this kitchen says elegant, thoughtful, and practical. Probably those aren’t the precise words that come to mind when you want to get the sex on, but maybe “tactile” moves us closer to that end. These kitchens just seem like they would feel good.
To cook in.
I’m kind of obsessed. I like wood with white counters, I like wood with black counters. I even like wood with wood counters. I would like wood in my kitchen.
But I’m more than a little afraid it cannot be. I investigated the gel stain some of you suggested and it appears to kind of sit on the surface of wood, sort of like transparent paint. I don’t know how I feel about that. Maybe I’m totally delusional about the quality/style of my cabinets, but what I reallllly want is a bare, matte finish — something that looks more like old wood and less like plastic impregnated woodishness.
This is super gorge. Someday our floors might even look like this. Of course those cabinets are repurposed from an Edwardian era storefront so it’s not like this can ever happen in our kitchen. Except maybe the hardware.
Sorry about the dumb picture, but I think this cabinet situation is about the best we could hope for.
What I need to know is, should I even go down this road? Is it worth it? Is gel stain the only viable option or should I actually take on the possibly sissyphean strip/stain/wax triumvirate?
I love the idea of durable, touchable, delicious wood, but am I headed for heartbreak? Is this going to triple our work load only to look crappy with our dumb cabinets?
Ermahgerd.
No cheesy iphone filter can disguise that horror, so I didn’t even bother. They really are that orange.
Would I just be better off stealing Bailey McCarthy‘s kitchen?
And the rest of her house while I’m at it?
Help me out, people. Lower cabinet finish/color is the last decision to make before we tear this mother down.
I promise no more kitchen posts until we actually do stuff.
Also I am hoping to put up some house tour action next week.
Please don’t leave me in my time of need.
Related posts:
What about buying new door fronts? I am sure you can strip and get the base cabinets to look darker. and with larger new door fronts you should be able to hide most of them anyways. not to mention you can do a clean shaker style door….
I dont like gel stain.. i think it would chip.
but havent used it.
It doesn’t look as though any of he other examples are oak? The oak grain will be hard to disguise even with a darker stain, so if the grain bothers you, I’d stick to paint with grain filler used underneath. If the grain doesn’t bother you, then staining would seem a good option. Good luck, it will be a huge improvement whatever you decide.
“the”
I am surely a lot lazier than you. That said, I would probably not go to the effort to stain the cabinets. I’d paint them – maybe the lowers a dark color to “disappear” them. Something like this: http://pinterest.com/pin/287034176222075759/
The wood lowers in your pics do have a timeless look though. But since they all have nice overlay doors or flat panels, you might not really end up with the effect you want. Maybe try out the stain on one drawer front to see how you like it and what you’d be in for?
Laura, that is my Plan B, and it’s a good one. I just know that once I paint the cabinets, there’s no going back. So I’m going to try to see this harebrained scheme through to the end (whatever that is).
Modfrugal, I don’t mind having some grain showing but I don’t want it to look like someone took a sharpie to the cabinets. Good point on the oak… although people have stained oak floors all the time, right? Going to check out some pictures to see.
Liz, I think by the time I did all new doors I may as well put in new Ikea cabs. Sads.
Definitely try stripping/sanding/staining/finishing one door or drawer front before painting so that you can be sure of your decision. I said I wouldn’t do all that work for a kitchen, after doing a small bathroom vanity, but I should have clarified I wouldn’t do it ‘by myself’ (which I’m sure my husband would leave up to me). If you have help doing it go for it! I used citristripper which worked really well to get the old varnish finish off my oak doors & vanity and was very easy to scrape off the recessed panels. Plus no harsh fumes. I wanted a limed oak finish but I followed a lot of wrong instructions online trying to get it. I used fine steel wool to apply lime wax (big mistake) to the unstained oak and when I was left with a gross pickled finish & removed it, the citristripper reacted with steel fibers left on the doors and created ugly dark grey marks on the wood that looks like mold/mildew. Then I tried staining the door a grey tone first which was another big mistake. If I had white oak instead of red oak it might have worked but again I was getting a gross 80′s pinky oak/pickled undertone that the lighter grey stain brought out. Finally I stained the doors a medium brown tone and found that after applying the lime wax (with a rag), a clear wax would take off the excess leaving the lime wax only in the wood grain which was what I wanted. I don’t think a wax finish would be durable in the long run for a kitchen unless you made it a yearly task to add a wax coat to your most used used doors/drawers. I think a matte/flat clear coat finish would be better. Good luck with whichever direction you take. I love those painted dark green cabinets & it’s making me re-think my navy cabinet decision.
I have ebony stained white oak floors that do show grain. They wet the floors to raise the grain of the wood so it would take the stain more deeply, so if you do a test cabinet or drawer, wet the wood first then wipe it off after a few minutes, then apply the stain, sand etc.. and repeat with more stain before sealing. According to my floor guys, that’s the best way to go dark with oak.
Hmm. I just want to say for the record that I was honest about the gel stain. I said it was like transparent paint!
More to the point…I agree with the suggestion that you try the strip/stain/varnish process on ONE drawer before you make up your mind. If the look is MAGNIFICENT, it may be worth it. But stripping varnish (especially on milled surfaces) is a large undertaking, and you should know how annoying it is and how good your results are before you plunge all the way in, IMHO.
As to not-as-difficult solutions…what about whitewashing? Like if you did it really well. I have seen BAD whitewashing, of course. And also Minwax (or was it Varathane? No, Minwax) now has a stain called “weathered oak” which clearly has some kind of white paint in it. I thought about using it on my floors, but decided I just wanted to go dark (they are red oak, and they took stain all kinds of crazy interesting, but (a) I sanded them ALL the way down first, which is simpler with floors, although still shockingly filthy and (b) they are 115 years old and have been abused for decades by tar and stupidity, so they take stain with a lot of…idiosyncracies. Fortunately, that is the look I was going for). So if you wanted to strip down to bare wood, that might get you where you want to go (and I imagine other companies are coming out with similar things now).
P.S. Your top two photos (Elle Decor) and also the Edwardian storefront piece ARE TOO OAK! People automatically assume that “attractive” means “not oak.” I feel it is part of my personal mission to rehabilitate its image. A widely-available, affordable, domestic hardwood with interesting grain? How is that not awesome?
First: I totally agree about V-day. It tricks our poor, dear loved ones into buying items from Jane Seymour’s Open Heart Collection at Kay jewelers. It must stop.
Is the New England Home image the “dumb picture?” If so, I really like it. And it seems so doable.
I’d say definitely try one drawer or cabinet front out first. Strip, sand, stain, seal…yes it would be a lot of work but if it turned out fabulous wouldn’t it be worth it?!
Investigate! Take off some doors from the top that will be a painted or replaced with glass and go to town with different techniques. Try stripping then just waxing, different stains (like the weathered oak mentioned above), wetting to raise the grain and not wetting. You won’t know until you get down and dirty.
I agree with Jenny B and RMC – just play. Pull off a few doorfronts and play! They’re going to get painted anyway, so it won’t hurt – and if one technique works, how amazing would that be?!
I hate to be a dick, but I don’t think you’ll ever love your current cabinets, no matter what you do to them. It’s not unlike your sex analogy (kitchen wood is the best term ever!): you can’t force it if you’re not into it. I think you can make yourself not hate them as much, for a few years or so, but eventually you’re going to want to rip the fronts off and start from scratch. Also, re the wood floors working when they’re oak – that’s because the planks are never more than 4″ wide (or thereabouts). You never have to see all that grain in one place at one time. It’s broken up, and it becomes something else. Anyway, I think you should look into hiring a local carpenter to re-make your cabinet doors and drawer faces in a wood that you love. You might be able to get what you want, especially since you seem to have good boxes/hardware to work with. I hope you get your kitchen wood, and subsequent satisfaction from it.
We are buying a house with very similar cabinets to yours, and right after I became obsessed with achieving an “old card catalog” finish with my cabinets (and card catalogs are typically oak, so it seems promising) I saw your posts. Somehow this must be achievable – I’m not ready to give up! Painting old oak cabinets has been done to death – I want to find a way to work with the wood! Also, I’m secretly hoping you’ll figure it out first, so I don’t have to
Nope. Oak is just fugly with big grain- if you stain it dark it will look lame. Paint them a nice brown or other dark or even black color it will be much better with the same effect. You can always wrap the peninsula eating counter in a nice wood on the dining side for the wood element. Trust.
I’m in love with that walnut kitchen from House Beautiful. But I still vote for liming the oak which will turn it gray and take advantage of the grain rather than disguising it.
Or black cerused…
i saw bailey’s home and totally thought of you! i looooove those cabinets.
This is totally off topic and I am sorry, but that first photo is an offender of my number one kitchen pet peeve:
BAR HEIGHT STOOLS AT A COUNTER HEIGHT SURFACE.
Who does this? Why is it so common? No humans can sit while simultaneously enjoying use of the surface–especially not for food. Professional decorators make this mistake all the time, huge national publications feature photos of it, and it fills me with blind murderous rage every time.
Thank you for reading.
Your taste is phenomenal, Erin, and I know you’ll do a beautiful job no matter what you decide to do in the kitchen. I can’t wait to follow along as it develops!
http://www.rivercitycabinets.com/index.htm
I know you plan on reusing your cabinets but I thought I’d throw this out there. River City Cabinets – loved them. You can keep costs down by staining or painting them yourselves.
Suck it up and go dark.
I commented on your prior post, and unfortunately I’m still on the side of painting rather than staining. I would do as the other posters have said though and experiment with a couple of drawers and see if you can get it the way you like. In every image you posted the wood cabinets are inset, and yours just unfortunately aren’t. They’re kind of like puffy oaky marshmallow cabinets. It just seems like you would put all this effort into restaining them and they’d still be puffy. I think you could disguise a lot more of it with some dark paint. Like Bailey’s. Or get an estimate on refacing. It may be less expensive than you think and then you’re done. Keep us posted!
“Puffy cabinets”! That’s what they’re called. I have them too. And then I look through all my inspiration kitchens and not a single one has puffy cabinets. That’s rough.
I used to think the problem could be solved by staining them black (but letting the grain show), like this:
http://roselandgreene.blogspot.com/2010/02/clean-and-modern.html
but after reading all these knowledgeable people, I suspect that’s not so easy.
There’s also the quirky notion of keeping the wooden cabinets and just painting the doors:
http://roselandgreene.blogspot.com/2010/04/fan-girl.html
http://roselandgreene.blogspot.com/2009/06/small-stuff.html
But I think you might need flat cabinets (or be Roman & Williams) to pull that off.
Good luck!
It’s true, Cassie… none of this bodes well for wood. I kind of have to laugh about the puffy marshmallow comment, though. Pretty spot on.
Yes, it’s me again…and why don’t I get my own life instead of worrying about your kitchen? Anyway, just saw this on Apt. Therapy – Corey Lynn Calter’s kitchen. It’s almost your kitchen but painted white and it looks good:
http://gallery.apartmenttherapy.com/photo/corey-lynn-calter-house-tour/item/385842
She even has similar tile and it works.
That second kitchen looks like smeared baby poop. I failed to read the comments above but sounds like you need to replace the door fronts on the bottom with something you like. Would a doctor cover up a gunshot wound with a bandaid? Paint the uppers and do something you love for the lowers. Did I mention you should do something you love?
I love so many of those inspiration photos, but your cabinets look like oak and oak sucks. It will still suck when it’s dark. The other major difference between yours and those you’re coveting is the amount of detail yours seem to have. The other have nice, clean lines while yours lean a bit traditional and big-box-y. (Sorry!) I’m afraid you may go to all kinds of trouble to strip and refinish and then still dislike the cabinets themselves deep down.
Erin, This is a wacky idea, but maybe could work? What do the inside of your doors look like? The inside of my hideous oak doors are a perfect shaker style. So I’m thinking, if that is your case with your doors as well, you could flip the doors! Head over heels. Fill in the little holes left from the hinges with putty and rehang with the hinges on the offending side. And same thing with the drawer fronts. The inside is probably just a flat face of oak and you could hide the screw holes that kept the drawer front on with awesome hardware. Then you could paint them or refinish them or a combination of both.
Kimberly great idea!
Maybe this sounds crazy stupid but have you considered making your own door fronts with plywood? The grain is cool and you could stain them however you want. They will be flat fronts and basic, that would look neat with white uppers.
I checked the insides and some are shaker but some aren’t…
Why am I not rich again???????
Not crazy, but I think if we go that route we’ll just order new doors.
I think maybe I’ll reprice that option again.
Thanks everyone for the great ideas!
You’re right.. All of these kitchens have a “feel good” aspect to them. Great pictures and nice read!
As for the gel stain, why not try a sample(s) on the inside of a door to see whether or not you hate it. I have no experience with liquid sandpaper but I hear it removes the glossiness. You might want to do that before gel stain.
I think you should think about new doors. All of your examples are slab doors and a few shaker and you have some serious builder-grade raised panel going on. Have you check out Lauren Liess’ kitchen reno? Her island is reclaimed wood planks and it is amazing. Pure Style Home. Sorry, just too tired and behind on work to link.
xoxo
GEL STAIN = POO. It is in my kitchen and I dislike it. It looks all janky and scummy around the handles, where it gets nicked and scuffed. It looks like a build up of filth (I thought it was when we moved in–this place was left a horrid mess) rather than an intentional effect. I would never recommend the stuff.
I dislike gel stain. You can stain your cabinets darker without totally stripping using Minwax Polyshades. As long as you are going darker, which I believe you are.
Refacing or painting the cabinets probably sounds like the safest bet, but here’s another staining option (diy ebony limed oak):
http://www.ornamentalist.net/2010/12/ebony-limed-oak-step-by-step.html
These kitchens are amazing! I’d love to wake up and walk into one of these in the morning. So surreal.
The Aestate did a post today on cerused oak and I think it would look amazing in a kitchen with white quartz countertops!
i am afraid that you will never be happy with whatchu got..putting lipstick on a pig.. etc. etc.. I was reading all these posts and thinking-what if you restain the fronts, you still gotta do the INSIDES.. and that is a horid horrid thought. and i was looking at that pretty back grained wood and i had a wackadoo thought…
what if you painted the bases/uppers (and innards) a matte color and added new shaker fronts in the same color but in a wood stain?? (e.g. matte gray paint and then gray stained wood fronts). you wouldnt see much of the bases. you could have them sprayed or rent a sprayer..
you keep saying you dont want a copy cat kitchen.. it could be goood. it could be rilly good. (if done well). you do shit well.
ALSO- this means you can go slow. take the doors off and get a the bases sprayed. and live with open cabs for a while.. just pick a plan and start making small steps..
is this a crazy idea?
Speaking of lipstick on a pig. . .what if you FAKED shaker fronts? Here’s a handy-dandy tutorial: http://manhattan-nest.com/2010/10/13/conquer-your-vanity/. Then, of course, we’re back to paint rather than stain, but I’m sort of settled on that if you’re sticking with the cabinets you have. Not that it’s my house or anything.
You could try wood grain filler like Jenny Komenda from Little Green Notebook: http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-to-fill-heavy-wood-grain.html
On her blog another commenter left this post about filling in oak wood grain: “Here’s a product that also fills the grain: Brushing Putty by Fine Paints of Europe. It brushes on like a primer, then you sand and repeat process as necessary. Had our painter use this on our oak kitchen cabinets 4 years ago and they turned out great. Not strong-smelling, either. I think I read about this product on the This Old House website.
http://www.finepaintsofeurope.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=14
and lastly here are Jenny’s finished cabinets, which she painted but they still look great and the grain was disguised: http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/11/diy-shaker-style-cabinets-part-2.html
I think painted lower cabinets with reclaimed wood upper shelving (and then throw in a wood-wrapped island) and you’ll be in business.
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