Expert: Eileen Cronk - 4/28/2007

Question
My kitchen cabinets are oak with a southwestern whitewash stain. It used to be pinkish in hue but has begun to yellow. It's unappealing and I would like to restain the cabinets with a blue stain. I'll need to remove the old stain(9 years) but I've read that you can use stripper and then sanding, stripper only and sanding only. Which is it? Also, is there anywhere online where I can download a photo of my kitchen and then experiment with colors??

Answer
Hi Deb
Nice to hear from you.
Try to avoid sanding completely on your oak cabinets.
You cannot sand a finish off sucessfully. Don't let anyone tell you you can LOL.
You will need to strip them with paint stripper and restain.
And use a waterbased urethane as the top coat to avoid the yellowing in future.
I'm not totally sure, but I think you need a program to do what you want with experimenting with colors.
And you do not even need that as most paint stores have them now.
Hope this helps and thanks for a great question.
Regards
Eileen