Stain Over Varnished Oak Cabinets

shovel

major problem stripped varnished oak kitchen cabinets to bare oak. Stained them again with darker stain then varathaned them, looked good. The doors and drawers were off, stained them and varathaned them in garage. (set up benches) Now here is the problem, the doors are alot darker, alot darker then cabinets. Same amount of coats. Doors are real oak, the cabinets are combination of oak plywood and real oak. Now the kitchen looks terrible, I mean terrible. What is my easy way out of this one.? I know i stripped them before to bare oak and that was right they to do but am I gonna have to strip either doors or cabinets again? Please help!!!

ModernStyle

You could sand them up a little and try to dry brush them to see if you can get them darker

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shovel

Can I on top of tha cabinets now that they are varathaned with clear oil based satin top coat

ModernStyle

I would use whatever you used the first time.
I have never done this with cabinets but when I did new residential I would sometimes have a door or something that came out light. I would just roung it slightly with a fine paper, then dry brush it untill I thought it looked ok, then after letting it set for a few days so the stain would dry I would respray it, but I normally used laquer back then, I am not sure how well a different product would want to stick to the other product. Leo G would probably be the person to ask, he is the expert on wood finishing. You should have posted this in another area to get it noticed better.

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jeffsko

Try Polyshades by Minwax. It is a combination of stain and polyurethane.

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Custom

If the scuff-sanding and dry-brushing doesn't look even, try making your own toner with the poly. Add an oil based stain to your original top coat, and re-apply until the cabinets are dark enough. This may take several coats I'm afraid, because you can only add so much stain before it is overthinned and prone to sags.

I use waterbased products, so I can be re-coating in about an hour, but this may be a bit of a process for you. Good luck.

pinwheel

I don't think he'll get where he needs to be that way.

I'd abrade the light cabinets & paint them with stain. Let it become tacky & lightly wipe back to the darkness you desire. Let dry completely, steel wool to smooth & recoat with poly.

The nice thing about this method, if you goof up, you can wipe it all back off with mineral spirits & try again.

CompleteW&D

Sorry, but that's one of the poorest DIY products available on the market today. I would NEVER recommend that product in any capacity.

I'm not a painting professional, but your situation is fairly easy to correct. First, go to your local Rockler, Woodcraft or other professional woodworking store and check out Transtint dyes. Transtints are great because they emulsify in alcohol (DNA or alcohol based shellac) and water based products equally well. They are not recommended for use in Polyurethanes or things thinned with mineral spirits which your Varthane is. However, you could easily mix up a toner using the Transtint in some shellac, go over the poly with your toner and then a final coat of your Varthane Varnish or Poly as a final finish.

http://www.lmii.com/carttwo/transtin...ldatasheet.pdf

Grab two or three that get you near the color you are wanting to achieve to match the darker doors. Grab some oak scrap and practice using the stain/Varthane combo exactly as you used it to get the boxes to where you are now. When the scraps match the boxes that you want to darken, start toning with the transtint dyes (I would use them in a clear Shellac) until you get an exact match. Keep an EXACT finish schedule (steps, amount of dye used, number of coats etc.) on the back of each piece of scrap so that once you achieve a match, you can easily repeat it in larger quantities. It will take some time, but it's WAY better than trying to start over on the entire project.