My Kitchen Cabinet Magic

Before: looking in from the living room
These are pictures from the listing on our house:
*****Before you start this...Please, Please make sure that your cabinets are solid wood and not particle board! If you have particle board cabinets I'd recommend putting on new wood vi near or wood laminate to reface them with,not refinishing in this manor*****

What you'll need:

1. Electric sander(s)- We had an orbital and a belt sander. I think the orbital was nicer. Of course I borrowed the ones we used. Try http://tinyurl.com/hitatchysander we love hitachi!! I also love my black and decker tools, try: http://tinyurl.com/nn8ssk we also had one of these nifty little tools for small places: http://tinyurl.com/drimel
   
2. Lots of sand paper (ranging in grit from 60-120) FYI- the higher the number the smoother the paper. The lower the grit the rougher the paper. I like to use a medium texture paper that removed more stain/paint and but didn't gouge the wood. I found that with the rougher paper it was easy to over sand. Not a good idea!! Try: http://tinyurl.com/gatorgrit for your electric sander & http://tinyurl.com/sandingblock for the close spots that you have to hand sand. I used the tilted edge blocks. I went though about 5-8 blocks! You'll get some serious work-outs for your arms. :) You'll also want a couple of these sand paper blocks http://tinyurl.com/betweencoats
   
3. Stain Remover- try http://tinyurl.com/stainstripper to remove stain and paint from grooved that you can't sand in. Use a steel wool pad after letting sit. Follow directions on bottle!!
   
4. Foam brushes- all sizes fat, thin, etc. And don't buy the cheapy ones. You want a nice, smooth finish. Which would mean no foam particles on your cabinets, right?! Try http://tinyurl.com/foambrushes After all that work removing the old finish spend the extra $1.50 for the nice brushes! :)~
   
5. Old rags- to remove excess stain and polyurethane.
   
6. Stain & Polyurethane: use water based stains like: http://tinyurl.com/cherrystain & semi-gloss polyurethane try: http://tinyurl.com/polyyy. I'd recommend testing stain colors before you buy a whole gallon of stain! I'd also recommend going dark instead of lighter, unless after you remove all the paint or stain off your cabinets you don't have any "bruises". I personally wanted the dark so I was not worried about stubborn spots.
   
7. Plastic or Cardboard- for the stain remover, staining, and polyurethane application steps.
   
8. Gloves, masks, & eye wear
   
9. Time, lots and lots of time!!!
   
   *Always use eye wear safety glasses, I'd recommend a mask too!!*

During: My wonderful husband sanding down the faces of the cabinets. This was the easy part :)

Steps:

1. Remove cabinet doors from fixtures numbering them as you go. Remove hardware from doors and fixtures. Put all hardware screw, hinges, knobs, handles, etc. from each cabinet in a zip lock plastic bag with the corresponding number on it. Place all zip lock baggies in ONE Tupperware or storage container for later. (I reused my hardware, I spray painted them silver!)
   
2. The tedious task starts here: start sanding and stripping off all the paint, or stain in my case. If you are removing paint, I would use the stripper (using the gloves) first. I DO NOT recommend pregnant women to inhale such chemicals as these! If you are removing stain, I would sand first, but that's just me. Feel free to use your best judgement. Every cabinet is different! :) Don't forget you not only have the cabinet doors to remove the old finish off of, but you also have the cabinet fixture too!!!
   
3. After all the long hours of electric sanding, hand sanding, and stripping off the old finish you are ready to stain!! After you have tested colors and picked what you wanted. Use the nice foam brushes you bought to apply your first nice even coat of stain. This is where you get to be creative and decide if you want to let it soak in for 10 min and wipe it off or longer. Test only one door first. I left my stain on without wiping it off to get the dark color I have. I put two coats on mine. Read stain directions for timing of coats and drying information. You may need the super fine sanding block (the yellow, hand sand paper block) to smooth out any imperfections.
   
4. After you have finished staining all your doors and cabinet fixtures it's time to apply the polyurethane! I put two coats on mine with the light sand (yellow sand paper block again) between. This was a fast step!
   
5. After everything has dried at least for a full day, it's time to hang everything back up! Lucky you, you know which cabinet doors go to which fixtures with the matching hardware!! You lucky dog, you!!!

My wonderful cherry kitchen cabinets, After:

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed carpenter. I am only telling you what I did to my cabinets and what I would recommend for other situations. Refinishing your own project is an "at your own risk" project! Good luck, I'm sure you'll love it after all the time you put into it! :)