I think I'd paint them. Perhaps white, but some light color. With those cabinets and at least in the photo the kitchen looks a bit dark. I think staining them a darker color would do little to help that unless you plan on changing the countertop as well.

What Kbizzle said.

You might also consider painting the doors' inset panels one color and the borders a contrasting color. That's what I did w/mine (and mine looked exactly like yours) and it really livens up the kitchen.

I'd clean them properly and then wax, oil or stain them (depending what some research indicates).
Although I do like painted furniture, I think it is important to remember not to throw out the baby with the bath water.
Enjoy making your mind up!

I'm not seeing enough of the kitchen to decide, but I would go through the web and look for ideas, find one you like and do it. I would start with the kitchn tours right here on at. They have some wonderful renovation and cheap makeovers here.

PS If it is within your budget, a new counter top in a different material and color (whatever goes with highlighting the grain or painting over it) would lighten up your kitchen.

I'd paint them a shade of white. I'd also replace the floor vinyl and install a bright, eye-catching backsplash and cabinet hardware.....to take the focal point off the countertop laminate. Congratulations on a project that will make a big impact!

I think your cabinets are a honey blond oak, i have the same and hate them. I've wanted to paint them for 10 years. But the hubs thinks it goes against nature to paint wood. I have convinced him to at least consider refacing the cabinets w/a lighter wood, not sure when that will happen, since he also doesn't believe in hiring contractors.

Maybe that is an option for you to have them refaced, not sure about the cost.

If you wanted to, you could stain the bottom cabinets a darker color and paint the upper cabinets white. It would keep the room light(er). I'd also add hardware, which would update them considerably.

You could also try adding some hardware to the cabinets... and a new color for the walls with curtains that pick up on the color. I wouldn't go darker your kitchen is dark now with that counter top. When you paint the walls you could paint the frame around your window white or a creamy white.

No offense intended, just an honest question: Without having some sense of the aesthetic of the cabinet owner, how are a group of strangers on the internet supposed to decide what would look "better"? Some people like dark wood, some people like white kitchens, some people like colorful kitchens. If this were my kitchen I would paint the cabinets white and add color and pattern with other things in the room (art, curtains, towels, etc.). I'd also maybe add some interesting hardware. I really dislike the look of two different colors, one for the inset panels and one for the borders, but that's just my personal preference.

If you did decide you would like to stain instead of paint, it is certainly possible. I will certainly be more of an ordeal. Sanding the doors will be somewhat tedious (specifically between the door frame and the panel in the middle).

I'm not sure if you're seasoned with finishing wood, but if your not here are a few basic things to keep in mind. Sand with the grain (if by hand); be careful to sand thoroughly with the finer grits particularly if you use coarse (which may scratch up the wood a bit). Random orbital sanders are great and save a lot of time, but note they will not take care of the curvy edges nor the edges of the panels in the doors. The highest grit you'll want to use is 220, though 180 would allow the wood's pores to absorb a bit more of the stain.

Staining, I have been using an old rag to wipe the stain on, and another to wipe the excess a few minutes later. Clear coating, I like polyacrylic instead of polyurethane. The urethane adds a yellowish hue that I don't like. I'm using General Finishes' Satin Polyacrylic (orderable from Rockler - a fantastic tough sometimes pricy outfit). Their finish is supposed to be very forgiving to brush strokes allowing them to level out. Make sure to wait 2-3 days between staining with an oil-based stain and using this water-based poly; otherwise you will get some undesired clouding of the finish.

Good luck!

Interestingly, the cabinets are not really the problem. The appliances, the counters and the floor could use updating and the cabinets would look much better.

H, I have more or less the same problem in my new apt. The cabinets are in good condition but I just find them "U"gly!! It is a rental tho' and while I would love to paint them white am wondering if that's kosher. They are not mine, per se, but as a renter hate living with some managment company's bad taste, generic, cheapo, pre-installed furnishings!

Paint them white!

I can relate to anonniemuss's comments, above, re the questionable wisdom of giving advice to a person whose aesthetic we don't really know.

That said, "H" DID ask our for advice! I'm always puzzled as to why people seek strangers' advice on matters of personal taste, but it seems to be a regular occurrence, at least on AT.

Oops, should be 'for our' advice...

If you opt for keeping the wood look, you could consider using a gel stain. Gel stains contain a lot of pigment and urethane (as far as I can tell) and so they sit on the surface. That means that you can apply them without completely removing the old finish. (I haven't done this, but I have read about it online. I think it gives you a different look, with a less clear grain, but it's a lot less work than using a traditional stain.)

@anonniemuss: yeah, what exactly does better mean? this person must really be lost i guess. also-this is Good Question material??

To H: those are oak cabinets. Go ahead and Google "dark stain oak cabinets", click on the 'images' button, browse through a few pages of pics. Do you like that look? Now Google "white cabinets" (or whatever color you are thinking of) and do the same thing. We can tell nothing about the rest of your kitchen/home other than it's a mess and you have what looks like laminate countertops and vinyl flooring. What quality of advice are you expecting with those clues??

Just telling you what I did with the same cabinets--
I painted the upper cabinets a warm white and the lower cabinets a soft green, added great door pulls and it looks great!

no need to get nasty, jess13.

Why not clean up kitchen, take a picture, and try again? Why would you post a pick like that?

I have these same exact cabinets at home. you are going to have better luck if you paint them- I suggest a lighter color or white-it's more modern and new hardware. It will give you a good contrast with your dark countertops. Also, when you paint them, make sure you lay them flat to dry COMPLETELY. I thought a couple of my doors were dry and propped them up in the garage to be out of the way. these doors are now a tad warped :( Good luck!

It depends entirely on what YOU prefer and what final effect you hope to achieve. Flip through magazines and see what kitchens appeal to you most - then duplicate that. If it were me, and I just had to keep the wood (we all know there are wood grumpies in certain families!), I'd clean and condition them. If I had my way, since there's a dark countertop, I'd paint them a creamy white something close to the color on the appliances. Then I'd add modern stainless handles to the cabinets (whether or not they have hidden pulls now), a beautiful tile glass backsplash in a subway tile format rather than mosaic, and severely declutter the kitchen (literally, everything, gone - I eliminated my dish draining rack on the counter because I have a dishwasher that I can use for the same purpose, my paper towel rack is mounted inside a cabinet, my microwave is hidden inside a cabinet), then I'd add color with a roman shade and kitchen tools (Kitchenaid mixer, a bowl with beautiful fruit, etc) Simplicity in the kitchen usually pays off and then your eye is drawn to the beautiful details (stainless pulls, color in the accessories) rather than the cabinets you dislike.

BTW, you can paint and stain wood samples that are about the size of a kitchen cabinet door, sit with them for awhile propped up in the kitchen, and then decide what feels right. When you're confused about direction, it's worth the effort, it helps get a better visual of the final result. What's perfectly lit in a magazine or showroom won't show the same in your home so it's often better to try things out IN your home before making a big commitment.

My first thought was to paint them. Possibly white. But if you want to get away from that normal standard opt for something more bright and fun..like turquoise. :) Have fun and good luck with the process!

I agree that the picture provided makes it hard to tell what your kitchen looks like. It's difficult to advise you since we know nothing about your style. I'd suggest stepping back a bit and taking a wider angle shot of the kitchen so we can see how the cabinets work with the whole. Removing some of the clutter from the countertops and tops of cabinets would help us see what you're working with better, too.

That said, I'm disgusted by the negativity that has been cropping up more and more in this community of late. Some people think that internet anonymity gives them the license to be as jerky as they want to be without repercussions. Just because you *can* say something does not mean that you *should* say it.

Keira, I completely agree! I've been contemplating asking some design questions about my new house here on AT, but the way some people respond has completely put me off. Why be so mean about it?! If you don't have something helpful or constructive to say...simply don't respond.

I think you should paint them white. Stripping, sanding, and re-staining is a tremendous amount of work.

I'm guessing that you're debating between painting and staining because you want to change the color but want to preserve some of the nice wood grain. If you don't care about wood grain, paint them. Look for inspiration kitchens on the web with painted cabinets and go for it.

If you're concerned about wood grain, then look into milk paint. It would allow some of the grain to show but is closer to a paint than a stain and you could lighten the kitchen considerably.

Painting your cabinets is a much more economical way to update your kitchen than to replace the appliances and countertop as other commenters have suggested, so I say go for updating the cabinets first!

I'd paint them. The cabinets have nice fronts, but the kitchen is dark, you have dark countertops, & I'm a lover of light in some form or another. White is always good, or perhaps a very pale gray. Remove the dark window ruffle & have no window covering. I've become a lover of dark floors, because it gives the illusion of more space. And light colored cabinets will give the illusion of height. I like a more seamless look in kitchens, & floor, cabinets, countertops, & appliances in different colors contribute to a disjointed look.

the cabinets are the least of your concern here. The floor, appliances, and most importantly the clutter on the counter, is what renders this kitchen unattractive. You can stain the cabinets X color or paint them Y color(s), but leaving that floor, those aplliances and counter crap will result in an equation that still = ugly.

You have pretty good quality solid oak cabinet fronts. I grew up with pretty similar cabinets, they are an '80s icon.

As the oak is actually very nice, I wouldn't stain it or paint it. Oak as a wood is actually coming back trend-wise, and so it would be a shame to paint these, especially since they are a clean squared shape, with no arches.

As I said, oak is coming back, but a matte white lye soap treated oak, which is quite a bit lighter than this, and with no yellow (they lye gets rid of the yellow).

I would experiment with these products on one of the doors (perhaps hire a person skilled in cabinet finishing to get a professional finish).

http://www.mcssl.com/store/wocaoils/indoor-wood

This shows you how beautiful the effect of these products can be:

http://remodelista.com/posts/architectural-detail-norwegian-wood

Good luck!

Agree with some of the others that it's very difficult to give constructive advice when we can't see much of the kitchen, haven't seen any of the rest of your home, and don't know anything about your style preferences.

That said, though, I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Rustoleum's Cabinet Transformations, sold at Lowe's, and reviewed by Janel here on AT earlier this year:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/at-email/the-under-400-kitchen-makeoverin-a-box-rustoleum-transformations-in-the-test-lab-139345

However, I've not tried it myself, and thus have no clue how good the finished product looks.

I think a new counter, floors and backsplash, and especially new appliances would go a Lottie the space, but if you really don't like the ploys I'd just paint them white as staining is a tonne of work.

If you do paint them white, you might want to paint the window frame white as well. But then that might nit be consistent with the rest of your home, so really appliances/floor/counter and maybe some new hardware will be enough to make it look great.

If you like a different shade of wood, simply sand them(I don't want to scare you but "sanding" is the hardest part) and then stain them. If you want to brighten up the kitchen, you should go with a shade of white or a some light color of paint. (FYI :when my hubby and I did this project, we used an oil base primer + two coats of high gloss paint after sanding. If you are not sure what you like, browsing website, magazines.... to gives you ideas before a big commitment! Good luck!

Oh, and a last thought -- these cabinet fronts are designed to be used without knobs or handles; keep the look clean and skip the hardware everyone is recommending. The only issue you may have is that to keep the look minimal, it might be a good idea to install hidden hinges -- but only if removing the original hinges will not leave a mark. Otherwise, I might try to find a chrome or brushed stainless finished hinge which is very squared-off in order to replace the original more ornate hinges.

In order to bring the rest of your kitchen into line with the lye-treated cabinets, I'd go with a white solid-surface counter, or marble or concrete, and perhaps some plain Moroccan Zelliges tiles in shades of white --

http://www.emeryetcie.com/en/what/tiles/zelliges/colours/02.htm

Your kitchen will be gorgeous, and a couple of years ahead of everyone else!

p.s. AT, isn't it about time that you started deleting the nasty comments again? You used to, but of late I have noticed some very mean comments making it through!

Since the trend in the last few years has been painting cabinets white or dark and dumping the honey blonde oak, I think I might tend toward actually keeping them as they are. Whenever everyone starts to do one thing en masse that means the tide has turned. Honey oak will be back in style soon if it isn't yet. I agree with others that the solution might be simply to change the floor, appliances and possibly add sleek hardware. Clearing away the clutter is going to help a lot too!

Before I painted or stained them, I'd remove the wall cabinets, possibly replacing some of the wall cabinets with shelving- or not, depending on the look you are going for. Then I'd clean and oil the base cabinets and consider new countertops and/or cabinet hardware. Once that's done, only then would I consider paint/stain, since that's a much more labor intensive project with a greater level of commitment.

The cabinets aren't the problem.

Clean your kitchen, get rid of the clutter, add knobs and handles, and update your appliances, windowcoverings and flooring.

I do love the look of dark stained cabinets but as many others have pointed out the sanding is a LOT of work. The other thing is that to me, dark cabs look better with light counters (which you don't have). Google images of dark stained cabinets and see if any of the photos really make you smile.

I've also seen a lot of mixed colors - dark on the lower cabs and light/white on the top. I think that can work nicely as well. White cabinets take a lot of maintenance though in terms of keeping fingerprints, etc off them.

I really like LetaB's suggestion above. Could be that the main issue with the current cabs is just that you're overwhelmed with wood/dark counters. Lightening it up a bit by opening the top cabs and changing counters will go a long way toward fixing that.

Best of luck!

Also, if you do opt to paint everything, remember that there are a lot of colors out there other than white ;-) I've seen some gorgeous kitchens in green, blue and gray.

I have similar cabinets in my apartment. They were so grimy and nicked and scratched by previous occupants that one day I grabbed a wad of 0000 steel wool and started sanding them lightly. The sanding took off the layers of grease and grime and dulled the shiny finish. I couldn't believe how much better -- and how much more stylish -- they looked after that all over sanding. Bonus: Boy, is sanding good for the upper arms!
I also took the doors off most of the cabinets. This required that I clean out clutter and organize my prettiest kitchen objects for display. Bonus: My kitchen is now organized and streamlined for usefulness.
I have one long pantry cabinet I'm still not happy with. I'm planning to use a technique AT posted about. I've found fabric I like and I'll use starch to attach it to the fronts of the cabinets.
Hope one or more of these suggestions gives you a place to start!

Guys, the main issue here is that the person who asked for advice said THEY think the cabinets are ugly the way they are. We may not know much of their general design taste, but whether or not WE like the cabinets the way they are are or think the other parts of the kitchen are ugly... those points are kind of unneccessary and irrelevant here. They're asking for help on the -cabinets-, and they want them changed.

H: I'd say whether you stain or paint depends on whether you'd like a dark kitchen or not. Some people prefer darker, cozier spaces and some prefer bright "open" spaces. It also seems that it's dependent on how much effort you're willing to invest in the situation, since people seem to be saying that staining will be more work-intensive than painting.

I do think doing one of the two will give your kitchen a dramatic facelift, either way. One way to experiment with what will look better to you is to take some more photos of the kitchen as a whole, and go onto a website like Benjamin Moore or Home Depot (I think?) where you can upload photos and use their tools to check and see how different colors will look in your home. Then, opt for a solution based on what you like best (unless you've already ruled out staining based on effort involved.)

Hope this helps!

I had cabinets just like that when I bought my condo 2 years ago. I immediately opted to stain them a darker color using the Minwax all-in-one stain and ployurethane, going for a darker color (I can't say how well the lighter all-in-ones would work).

It involved minimal sanding, took really well, and hasn't worn down in the time since.

Ikea has some interesting oak finishes. Their catelog may be a source of inspiration on modernizing what you have. I've seen some really nice examples of oak in the Room and Board catelog as well. I agree the appliances, sink and faucet, counter, flooring and other fixtures are dated, more so than the cabinets. Quick upgrade of those plus a backsplash may do wonders.

I know what I would do, but I have my own distinct style. So I was going to say what anonniemuss said... it's hard to know what to suggest without knowing what you're into.

Changes you can make w/out painting or staining include doing the backsplash and adding hardware. Do what funstraw said and find an "inspiration kitchen". Don't rule out doing two different schemes on the top and bottom-- including leaving one wood and painting the other.

This kitchen re-do might be useful to look at, as they painted over similar cabinets and also painted the floor, and really brightened everything up!

http://www.myrepurposedlife.net/2010/11/how-i-painted-my-vinyl-floor.html

To H, on mschatelaine's comment about hardware, it's not always about functionality but about finishing the look - directing the eye - dressing up a plain cabinet so it looks more modern (like a beautiful necklace on a plain little black dress).

Hi, Thanks so much for the comments. Yes, the place is a mess and the clutter doesn't help. I'm in the process of starting renovations on this very old house. I'm not quite ready for the expense of an entire kitchen makeover but wanted to start with the cabinets and walls. The floors will be tackled once I figure out how to deal with the slope. Mainly I asked this question on painting or staining because I wasn't sure how good paint looks on wood. I'm going to go with oil primer and 2 coats of paint.

It is a small kitchen and I think I'm going to go with cream colored cabinets to go with the appliances and a light grey/blue for the walls (and it will go with the countertops). I'll paint the trim and the ceiling the same color as the cabinets (the rest of the house has white trim). I'll think about the hardware once all of it is done and especially because it will be light colored cabinets. I have thought about getting Ikea wood countertops but am not sure how much better it would be than the current laminate. Anyone have experience with Ikea wood countertops? I've thought about a backsplash but it is such a small space. Maybe it won't be necessary with a different wall color.

Having said all of that, I just want to point out that the question was concerning staining or painting. You give me your advice on what you think looks good. I don't think you need to worry about my aesthetic. It's more about hearing what others have to say and then I take what I think applies.

While the kitchen has been cleaner, I still can't imagine how it would be clutter free in such a small space! And the American need to keep buying more appliances. :) While this is not going to be my dream kitchen, I think the makeover will make it more liveable. Thanks for the comments and I'll try to send after pictures once all of it is done (it will be a lot of painting with the inside and outside of the cabinet doors!).

I'd definitely go with some shade of white paint, maybe with a light-handed brown glaze?

H -

here is an example of someone who painted their oak cabinets white:
http://www.housetweaking.com/2011/02/03/against-the-grain/

She shows how you can still see the grain but only under a certain light.