So to start at the beginning -

hustlep2........how is it that the wood grain can still be seen through paint? I have the same lovely honey coloured cabinets and I need to refinish as opposed to replace. They are solid oak and in beautiful shape, but need to be brought into this decade. The counter top was updated about 2 years ago and I can work with it, deciding what and how to refinish the cupboards is not so easy. My husband is horrified at the thought of painting wood.....I know, it's old school thought I suppose, but I can appreciate his feeling too. I'm leaning to a two-tone design, maybe paint and stain.....not sure. We just bought the house 4 months ago (was built in 89) and have replaced all carpetting with solid provincial coloured oak flooring (not dark, not light....the colour is in between both) and porcelain tiles that look like slabs of marble with burned orange, deep browns, cream and grays running through it on a rich beige background. I am using colours and materials that lend a tuscan flavour.......tuscan sun on the walls in the living room with an accent wall in peacock feather, furniture is cappacino coloured. Very warm and inviting. There's just the crown molding left to do and that'll be in white as is the all the trim in the room. I want the kitchen and dining rooms to be bright, but still nod to the tuscan flavour in the rest of the house. The kitchen opens to a sun room overlooking a pool, deck and the river in our back yard (facing south / east). On the other side of the kitchen (L shaped with the kitchen in the inside corner of the L) is the dining room with huge windows overlooking the back as well. There is lots of natural light. I LOVE the tuscan sun colour (kind of a deep clay pot colour really), it's so warm and inviting. Any thoughts or words of advice to offer for the kitchen?

2 days ago · Like





olldroo

If you want a Tuscan look, then do not paint your cupboards. Fads come and fads go but if you look back over the years you will see timber is timeless, it is always around. Timber can always be polished or oiled to rejuvenate it but paint needs regular maintenance.

44 hours ago · 1





lauramaepatrie

Olidroo, thank you for your comment. I agree with you completely about the paint or not to paint thing. I'm just cringing at the amount of work it is going to take to bring back a number of the cupboard doors. The cupboards as I said are in beautiful shape.....nothing is broken, no doors or drawer fronts are broken, cracked or chipped or even hanging askew, HOWEVER a few chosen door fronts (the ones in key places that are used 1,000 X a day as opposed to maybe 1 X per week like the others) have worn finishes. The wear is so bad on some that the finish is long gone and some of the surface wood grain has darkened. I have 26 door fronts (2 of which are very large pantry doors) and 7 drawer fronts in total, so I am really trying to figure out what we can do WITHOUT having to completely sand the old finish on all of these cupboard fronts. I should add that we are beyond middle aged (unless we are going to live to a VERY old age lol) and he have remodeled and redecorated many houses over the years usually just getting them completely finished in order to sell them. We have done well, but this is a much more up scale type of home than what we are used to working on so it's more of a challenge to make sure we are going to appeal to that range of buyer looking for a home in this price range. This house has 4,000 s.f. of living space and, as mentioned, in water-front, dbl car att'd garage, central air, etc. etc. Our investment dollars are limited, but that is something we ARE accustomed to in the sense of using imagination, elbow grease, our own work and a reasonable amount of talent to make the best of a home rather than just dishing out $$$ to someone else to do so. I am taking your comment to heart and even before reading it this morning, I woke up with an idea that I have been discussing with my husband even more positively since reading your comment. See, there's another link in all this......I mentioned oak hardwood and porcelain floors. We have done those in the rest of the house (hardwood in the living room and reading area off of the living room, down the hall to, and in, the 3 good-sized bedrooms and, of course, in their closets. The master has an extra wide "hall" that passes in front of an 8.5' X 8' walk in closet to the master bath. That whole section was done in cork flooring and will be the only flooring that won't be ceramic / porcelain or hardwood on this level. Now, back to the new twist for the kitchen. The original flooring in the kitchen and the back hall / entrance is ceramic and is rather neutral in tones, but our original plan was to use the new, gorgeous porcelain tiles we put in at the front entrance (and inlaid in the form of a large diamond in the hallway hardwood between the front entrance of the house and dining room) so that everything flowed throughout the house, it was either all the same hardwood or all the same porcelain. My husband is now flinching at the thought of removing the ceramics in the kitchen, back entrance. I understand as it is properly laid and will undoubtedly be a huge amount of work to remove. I'm just really unsatisfied with the thought of not having ALL the flooring flow. Do you happen to know if there is a way to remove the ceramics without damaging the prepped floor underneath? It's a type of plastic "bubble" looking stuff that you adhere to the sub-floor with a cement type mix. You then adhere your ceramic or porcelain tiles to it once it has dried. We used it under the porcelain we installed here and we can see that it was used under the ceramics in the kitchen. If there is a way of salvaging that when we remove the tiles, it would save a lot of $$$ and of course work in the end.

38 hours ago · Like





olldroo

lauramaepatrie - not always easy to visualise things but if your doors are solid timber then there should be ways of fixing them - or worst case scenario replacing just the damaged ones. I'm thinking if you sand the damaged ones back you should be able to remove the darker markings too. The surface wood markings is probably just basically ground in dirt. The other way I often have success is to use steel wool to scour the dirt and finish by rubbing Scandinavian Teak Oil into the timber also using steel wool. This oil seems to work well on most timbers but you can get other colours in oil if one might match your timber better.

Can't help you with your tiles sorry, they do sound a big job. Perhaps you could talk to some local tilers and see what is involved. It sounds to me like the plastic would lift easier to remove the tiles rather than try to remove the tiles from the plastic. It all depends on how solid an adhesive it is.

It all depends on patterns in the tiles, but if your entrance tiles are patterned and the kitchen fairly plain, then I think leaving things as they are would be fine - a stand alone entrance feature looks fine, in fact yours sounds very dramatic. Another alternative, if you did take up the kitchen tiles would be to replace them with the cork. I love cork for kitchens, it does take a bit of care, but it is so much softer underfoot and kinder to feet and joints (especially older ones).

PS I'm on the wrong side of middle aged too so I completely understand things from the $$$ aspect.

30 hours ago · 1





lauramaepatrie

olldroo, thank you once again for your input. You sound as though you know a good deal about wood for sure. Are / were you a cabinet m aker or carpenter of some kind? I'd like to hear more about these oils with colour in them.......the idea I woke up with this morning is exactly what you've suggested. Sand down the real rough ones, then using a stain / varnish or gel stain or whatever seems to work best to try to match the finish as best we can to make the cupboards work without anything jumping out at you (like the worn cupboard fronts do). I think changing up the hardware to something more modern (thinking brushed nickel, sleek door handles and drawer pulls, both the same) and some really sharp tiling for a back splash to draw the attention and add a wow factor.
I thank you for your input and I'll wait to see if you can provide me with more info on this oil stuff. Is it hard to work with? What is the advantage as opposed to just stain and then varnish.......?

25 hours ago · Like





olldroo

lauramaepatrie - I'm just a senior with lots of experience, especially in the trial and error DIY department. I have picked up a bit about wood more from the Tasmanian Oak panelling, skirtings and architraves I have in my home. Can't help you much with oil brands because ours would be different to yours (I'm an Aussie), but I'm sure the guys at Home Depot or someplace similar would be able to guide you. I love hardware stores, I leave hubby at home and do what I call my "dumb broad act". I just ask every conceivable question, play the helpless little woman, even con free samples, until I get all the information I need. Works every time (don't tell anyone). I learned the trick about using the steel wool when we first put the Tassie Oak in, even though it is a very hard timber the steel wool still rubs it up enough for the oil to get in and it leaves a lovely patina on the timber. We used white shellac on it to bring the colour of the timber up and then oiled to preserve and maintain it, but I have also used oil on timber with other stains also with success. I have even put it over surfaces I'm sure are varnished and it still works. I re-oil it every 4 or 5 years and it still looks great after 35 years. It is very quick and easy to do, a little messy, but I would much rather oil 10 walls than paint 1.

Put it this way, if your doors have had it anyway, you can't make them much worse, so you really have nothing to l

Ooops to continue - there must be a limit to how much you can put in a comment -


Put it this way, if your doors have had it anyway, you can't make them much worse, so you really have nothing to lose and probably everything to gain as I just have a gut feeling this will work. The best part about stains too is that if they are wrong you can just rub them back and try something else, but I suggest you see if Home Depot might have a small offcut that matches your cupboards and you try stains on that first. Beware of following samples in the store as the colour of the stain often depends on the timber used, different timbers will go different shades. You can use a stain and varnish, they are easy to paint on too, we just opted for the oil for the richness it gave the timber over a varnish. Your existing cupboards are probably done in a varnish so probably better you keep to that for a better match, just check the finish, varnishes come in a matte, semi gloss or full gloss. It probably wouldn't hurt to give all your cupboards another coat of varnish to lift them, it doesn't take that long to do compared to painting and is pretty foolproof to do, just watch for any drips. You don't need to rub the good doors back just make sure you given them all a good clean first, it is amazing how much grime and grease can build up on cupboards you don't notice. If you are in the US there is a product called TSP which is similar to a product we have here that I use to thoroughly clean all walls and timber. I think though our product is much gentler and less toxic so not sure if TSP is ok on timber. If you are in Canada, you can buy the product we have, it is called Sugar Soap and I think the same company makes it - Shelleys.

Just a thought on your new pulls and handles, remove one from a door and drawer and take shopping to make sure the screw holes will be in the same place, otherwise you will have to fill existing holes and no matter how careful you are, those fills are hard to disguise.

19 hours ago · 1

lauramaepatrie

olldroo.....thank you so much for sharing your experience. BTW, I'm a Canuck so could buy the same product you do and appreciate using things that are more environmentally friendly, nevermind the fact that they are better for our personal health as well. I've been using a product called Orange TKO for cleaning any oily gunk from the tops of cupboards that haven't been cared for in a long time (you know, that sticky, disgusting stuff that setttles on tops of kitchen cupboards especially if the previous person wasn't caring enough to just roll out paper towel over the tops of the cupboards.....you can't see the paper towel, but it sure makes cleaning a breeze compared to scrubbing unprotected surfaces!) Anyway, the Orange TKO removes pretty much anything and I just received a new shipment, so I've been cleaning the fronts of my already-cleaned-with-another-product-cupboards and if I thought it was astounding what the other product removed, well I can only imagine what I would have thought if I'd had the TKO stuff to use first!!!! It's actually disgusting to see the grunge that comes off of cupboards that actually look fine. Yes, I do believe we are going to give a fresh coat of varnish to all the cupboards as it makes upkeep so much easier AND will make it easier for us to camouflage the fact that some have had to be completely resurfaced and others not.......at least the sheen will be exactly the same on all of them.
May I ask........I LOVE anything shiny (pretty much lol) and I am fighting with myself because I naturally want to use a high gloss varnish to coat all the cupboards with once I'm done, but everything I look at in the cupboard displays at Home Depots and elsewhere have this dull (in my opinion), non-glossy finish to them so I feel compelled to HAVE to finish ours the same as I am rather sure we will be putting the place for sale before too many years......dang though, 'cause I love a gloss finish. The light dances off of the surfaces so beautifully and it reflects the brightness throughout the room rather than absorbing the light like dull surfaces do. What do you think? I found the same thing with the hardwood flooring we put in throughout. The last time we had done hardwood flooring, prefinished stuff didn't exist. This time, we couldn't find UNfinished hardwood flooring and the cost of having it brought in special order would have been crazy. Regrettably, we went with what everyone else uses and I am dissapointed with the sheen.....it just doesn't shine like the hand-finished product does and no matter what, you don't have a completely smooth surface on the floors like you do on hand-finished hardwood floors. I have pictures showing how our hand-finished floors gleamed as though you had a sheet of glass laying on them. Those were beautiful floors. Everyone who comes over comments on how beautiful our floors are and I always think to myself "they could have looked so much better!" Anyway, I'm afraid of being dissapointed with the cupboards as well and always thinking that they could be so much nicer......what do you think? Should I compromise and go at least semi-gloss? People in general as so used to the dull so-called glossy finishes on things that they don't know what a real GLOSS looks like.
I am like you in the sense that I play the "clueless blond" (even though I'm not....clueless OR blond that is! lol) when I go to the hardware stores. You can find out so much more and they'll go into little details for you that can sometimes be very interesting......and, yes, they are also so much more apt to give you samples if you seem stupidly scared of making a decision LOL Anyway, I found out that people are so used to the duller finishes on floors and such that they are actually AFRAID of buying any prefinished flooring that has a high gloss because they think it isn't going to stand up to wear like the duller floors. I was shocked to hear that because the opposite is actually true.......th

I can understand when you really like something you like to use it and I get very irritated about the constant references to "resale". If you are planning to sell in the near future though then that might be a point to consider but it would also depend on the area you live in and the current state of the market in your area. For timber, I definitely like a nice sheen.

From what I am told the more gloss to a finish the more it shows up irregularities and flaws, which suggests a full gloss is out, but as you say the high gloss does play the light around so that could also assist with any irregularities in the damaged doors if they don't come up perfectly.

OLLDS what do you think about this??? Bobbi, we aren't have a shot at you for being blonde - I'm relying on you for words of wisdom.

Ok, well, as far as kitchen cabs go, when I painted mine I broke all the rules. I used semi-gloss water based latex paint. And the cabs had just been painted by the idiot flipper about six months before I painted them. I used Behr Ultra Premium Plus which has the primer already built-in, and according to everything I've read on Houzz, that's not supposed to work.

BUT, it does work, it's been two years and the cabs haven't needed a touch up. I did give the doors a fresh coat last weekend, but because I wanted to, not because I HAD to. However, it's just the two of us, I don't have a batch of kiddies running around opening/slamming cabinet doors and stuff.

The cabinets are original to the house (1967) and are solid maple. The boxes show a little wear; the doors are still primo. R had to rehang a few doors because they didn't close properly.

If I had it to do again......I would paint the uppers white, and the lowers a different color, maybe the denim blue I used inside the cabs. I love that 2-tone look! I'll tell you one thing I don't like, it's the brown glaze some people put on their white cabinets. To me it looks dirty. I like white!

I don't like the super shiny floor finishes, but on our last project, I got outvoted. We went with a semi-gloss for the maple kitchen floor but gloss for the oak floors. It is surprising, but we usually do a high gloss finish on the most beat up floors. The light reflection patterns tend to obscure all the problems with the wood and all you see is the shine. We do some really ratty looking floors, get them clean as possible, scratch up the current coating and reseal with gloss.

In any case, you should always put down two coats of gloss first, then switch to satin for the topcoat if you don't want the shine, The gloss finish is a harder product.