Expert: Eileen Cronk - 9/22/2009

Question
Hi Eileen.
Let me first say thank you  for volunteering your time to answer our questions :)  I grew up with the smell of stain in my house.  My dad built and stained all of our furniture.  My parents have both passed away now and I have been blessed with all their beautiful furniture.   My dad always used Minwax Wood Finish Jacobean stain which I love!!  He built a kitchen table that I would like to put in my kitchen.  We have Village Premier Oak cabinets that have the medium walbut finish.  I want to restain the cabinets with  Jacobean.  From what I gather from other posts, this will be a very huge project but so well worth it in the end to have everything match...labor of love I guess. Here's my questions.  Can this be done?  I need to strip them, right?  Do I remove the whole unit or just the doors?  I'm concerned  about the fumes in the house(we have a sunroom with screen doors right off the kitchen),  as well as doing a thorough job.  I have heard of gel stain, whst's your opinion on that.  I don't think they make it in Jacobean  though.  Sorry for all the questions, I want to do this right.  Thank you in advance for your help!!  Tricia

Answer
Hi Tricia
Nice to hear from you.
Many thanks for the kind words.
I will answer your questions in order as I don't want to miss anything.
1..Can this be done?
Your current oak kitchen will no doubt have a lacquer finish with toners being used for the walnut color. This is a factory process and can be very hard to remove but it will come off.
So you do need to strip the cupboards.

2..Do I remove the whole unit or just the doors?
You only remove the doors. The cases will have to be stripped in place. Don't even think of removing them..its virtually impossible to do without damage.
Fumes will have to be dealt with using exhaust fans.

3..What about gel stain?
Gel stains are fine if you can get the proper color.

All the above sounds very positive but now for the down side LOL
Tricia you have read all the posts about this being a huge job and it certainly is but its not the work thats the issue here. Its getting the result you desire.
Jacobean is very dark and oak does not absorb a lot of stain. Thats why they use the colored lacquers I mentioned.
So before you get too far along you must do a test door.
Use the back of the door as a test piece.
Strip the door back and apply the stain and finish.
In this way you will know in very short order what your cupboards will look like finished.
And use the Minwax oil based Jacobean stain if you cannot find a gel stain.
What I think the result will be is a nice lighter contrast with your Fathers wonderful table.
Same color tones but lighter..so consider that.
If you need further help don't hesitate to ask.
Kind Regards
Eileen