Expert: Eileen Cronk - 10/17/2007

Question
I have ordered new cabinet doors for my mom's kitchen. They are made of oak and will be unfinished.  I plan to stain them the same color as the old doors(light oak).  The cabinets themselves are made of birch and are about 40 years old.  I do not want to veneer the cabinet frame/stiles but wondered how I am going to get the new doors to match the existing cabinet frame?  Do I need to strip the frames/stiles and remove all of the color or can I just clean them really good and apply new stain over them?
After I stain them, do I spray polyurethane on everything?  Thank you so much for your help.

Answer
Hi Gail
Nice to hear from you.
Oh gosh Gail, this will be a big job.
Hopefully the kitchen cabinets are not huge.
Personally if this was my kitchen, I would want the very best job I could do so I would strip all existing finish off and then sand the stiles back to remove any trace of stain (there will still be color there after stripping).
This in my opinion will be much easier in the long run than trying to match the existing color to the new doors...almost impossible I would guess.
Next some stain sampling will be in order.
First I would get the color you want on the doors as the stiles barley show.
Always do a test (back of a door is good).
When you are satisfied with that color choice (could take a few samples), then stain the doors.
Next come the stiles.
A lot of people are under the impression that you can apply a certain stain color to any kind of wood and everything will match.
This is just not the case.
Birch takes a stain lovely, but some  sampling and mixing will be needed here. Every piece and kind of wood is different.
Even then you may not get exact, but I think "close" will be fine in this case.
Always remember when staining, you can put darker stain over lighter, but not lighter over darker.
So please please do your samples. Time spent here won't be wasted.
After staining, unless you are trained in the use of a spray gun, I would brush on 2 coats of poly.
Those aresol cans are not suitable for this so don't consider them.
Good luck and a great question
Regards
Eileen