Original Sinner - painter of wood

osso, the house we're in now had a disaster of a kitchen when we moved in: think brown/orange/gold geometric carpet on the floor and dark wood cabinets with faux spanish hardware with the handle in the middle of the door (hardly ergonomic) -- it was horrible. (Well, we had to live somewhere.)
It had to be fixed but we didn't have a lot of money. (The rest of the house needed a lot of work too.) We took the doors off the cupboards, took all the hardware off the doors, filled the holes with plastic wood (I think), sanded them smooth and painted them a sage green with melamine paint. The cabinets we painted a buttery yellow. We painted wooden knobs gray and positioned them in the lower corner of the door (whichever side was logical) and used plain nickel hinges. They look great and are easy to wipe clean AND it really lightened up the look of the kitchen (a laminate floor helped with that too). Some wood is just too beautiful to paint, but sometimes it's the best solution.

On the very off chance you were serious about sandblasting, don't. All woods have sections of varying hardness. Only sandblast it if you want a very rough texture, like serious weathering in the desert.

Hi, Roger. No, I'm not serious about sandblasting, though I gather there are levels of sandblasting. I am talking twenty years of grease around the doors. Anything I've tried takes off the finish if it works at all. Frankly, a spatula or fingernail works best.
Hey, the doors are weird anyway, in particular the ones over the sink, which hit you near the eye if you walk into them. (Me with the vision spaz thing).

They're gone, soon, except for the ones by the floor, and maybe even those.

I'm thinking, I get the multi-drekko varnish off of the cabinets, and put on a light stain? Another varnish? Thinking a light eco type varnish, whatever that is.

Any ordinary person would tear this all out, and re-fit, but I don't have the money.
A lot of kitchen designers have long shunned at least some doors.

Well, we'll see, stay tuned.

I just love Watco Teak Oil, and it is simply impossible - well, almost - to mess it up. If you want to stain it, Watco Danish is also good, but not the protection from water at their Teak Oil.

You may prefer something else.

I may have brought some Watco Oil with me, as it is hard (ecologically) to just throw out. Or, I may have given it to the mover guys.

But, I'll look up all this on this thread before I act.

Who am I kidding. First move is to descrew the doors.

Osso--

Doorless cabinets mean looking at clutter--and because of cooking grease, eventually you're going to have to wash that clutter.

I'm a WASP. I like doors.

Clues for cleaning kitchen cabinets
Clues for cleaning kitchen cabinets

If the kitchen is the heart of the home, you have to expect your kitchen cabinets to get their share of grease and grime. The oil slick that has developed on your cabinets (especially around the handles) is a mix of kitchen grease, food smears, skin oil, and hand lotion that's transferred to the doors. According to the professionals at Furniture Medic, regular all-purpose cleaners won't cut through that combination, which explains the stubborn stickiness. Here are their recommendations for returning kitchen cabinets to their clean and smooth best.

You should only have to give your kitchen cabinets a good washing every year or so. Keep a spray bottle of all-purpose cleaner within reach all year round to spot-clean after heavy kitchen use.

Most cabinets are factory-manufactured and -finished, and even wooden ones have enough varnish or other protective coating on them to use a cleaning solution safely. However, never use acids or powdered cleansers on cabinets.

Cleaning manmade materials

If your cabinets are plastic laminate (Formica®) or other plastic, metal, painted metal or glass, you can wash them all over with a strong alkaline cleaner purchased from a janitorial supply store, or a heavy-duty cleaner from the supermarket. Follow these steps:

Mix the cleaner according to the product's directions.

Apply the solution with a sponge and let it sit a minute or two.

Scrub lightly where needed with a white, nylon-backed sponge.

Squeeze the grimy suds from your sponge into the sink or a slop market, not into your cleaning solutions.

Rinse with a damp cloth and wipe dry with a terry cleaning cloth. This will remove any last traces of scum, and leave the cupboards clean and gleaming.

Cleaning wood cabinets

Wooden cabinets may get just as dirty, but they're a bit more delicate. To remove the tough gunk, Furniture Medic offers these hints:

First, wash around the handles and any other grease zones with liquid dishwashing detergent - a gentle degreaser.

Then, wash the entire cabinet with oil soap solution, including the handle areas you have already cleaned.

Wipe lightly with the solution, taking care not to saturate the surface, then buff dry immediately with a terry cleaning cloth.

Always wipe dry with the grain or pattern, if there is one.

Unless your cabinets are dull from wear or age, rarely will you need to add any polish. The surface will reveal its own sheen when it is clean. If cabinets remain dull after cleaning due to age or wear, lightly spray furniture polish about once a year to fill in the wood's pores and restore its beauty.

In my old house, the kitchen cabinets were pine with a clear polyurethane top coat. I hate pine. So I painted them, without stripping the polyurethane finish. I don't remember the undercoat I used, but it was something recommended by a paint store (don't go to a big box, find one that supplies professional painters). Over that, I simply used a good quality latex enamel. Worked fine.

If you're looking for an ecological paint, and like a matte finish, try milk paint. It's been around for centuries, it's organic and environment-friendly, and extremely hard wearing.

where the wood is a prime feature, dont paint it. (Stuff like curly maple or figured wood, quarter sawn oak etc) should be kept in a semi gloo state. Other woods, unnfigured hard maple, poplar etc are usually painted for a reson, their grains are not the statement. I too hate all things pine, and its not even good for a firewood except as kindling.

These cabinets are ordinary oak, probably even the doorsl oak-veneered. I'm not fond of the oak but would probably feel guilty painting it. I have considered a light colored non transparent stain, but will probably end up just varnishing the spots that I've removed varnish from in my cleaning efforts.

(I wouldn't feel guilty painting pine..)

Back in Venice, I painted a whole wall of laminate cabinets, taking them off the wall, painting them in the yard, and rearranging them as about a seven foot high set of cabinets. Now there was a job, with a base coat of oil based primer and two coats of oil enamel paint - yuck. But it worked, the paint cohered to the laminate, and the cabinets made a pretty good pantry. I wouldn't use oil based enamel now, even if they still make it, which I don't know.

Tico, I do like real paint stores. There's a good Benjamin Moore store across town here...

BBB, I haven't tried oil soap to get the goo off without taking off the varnish. I'll try that. (That reminds me, I think I've tried Goo Gone, but can't remember. Will try that too.)

Re the doors, Noddy, I won't take off the bottom cabinet doors, but will the top ones. I don't have thaaaaat many cabinets that keeping them clean will be a problem, and I like to see my dishes (plus avoid getting hit in the eye, in the case of the cabinet over the sink). I don't cook with much oil, and never fry. The former owner sure did...




I'm one confused cookie.... maybe I wouldn't feel guilty painting the oak (after removing the varnish).

I don't think painting wood is necessarily a mortal sin. Oak can have a pretty deep grain that may telegraph through the paint, though. I like your idea of an opaque stain. I also like open uppers. Another option could be to replace the upper doors with glass panel doors.

The wood I feel guilty about painting in the seventies was good and old redwood. (Slaps self...)

I'll forego new doors with glass. One of these days I'll go for a new counter though.

For cleaning, I got to say Magic Erasers!



Try them, you won't be sorry!
I don't know how I lived without them!

Another favorite, something stronger...Krud Kutter