Expert: Eileen Cronk - 11/20/2008

Question
How can I refinish my oak kitchen cabinets.  Some have built up grease and on some the varnish is worn off?  Should I use a no gloss, low gloss or high gloss varnish? After they are refinished how can I best clean them to keep grease build up

Answer
Hi Angela
Nice to hear from you.
You refinish surfaces by completely stripping them of all old finish.
On your oak kitchen cabinets this will be a huge job and certainly not one the novice should attempt.
And some kitchen finishes are almost impossible to remove.
But what about something easier?
What about a little "face lift"?
Fairly easy to do if the cabinets are basically in overall good shape.
First an agressive scrub with steel wool and mineral spirits (varsol in Canada).
Just dip the wool in the spirits and scrub with the grain.
Dry with clean rags as you go.
This will remove every bit of grease and grime and slightly deglaze the surface.
Then you can recoat with a low sheen poly or tung oil.
Tung oil is applied with a lint free rag which makes this so easy to do.
I use tung oil on my own kitchen cabinets.
I do this process yearly or at least every couple of years so my cabinets always look nice.
For cleaning between doing this, I use a good quality cleaner degreaser and a scrub rag. The degreaser I use is called Citrus Solve..none better.
Hope this helps
Kind Regards
Eileen