Q: My pickled maple kitchen cabinets are about 30 years old, and the doors are badly in need of refinishing. What is the best approach?
A: Whether you call it pickling, whitewashing or staining wood white, there’s something appealing about lightening the color while still allowing the wood grain to show. People once whitewashed wood for practical reasons, using a caustic solution of lime and salt, because it killed insects and sanitized the wood. Today, when the color is usually just stain, it’s all done for looks. Whitewashing brightens a room and evokes the aged look of bleached driftwood.
But when grimy handprints build up near handles or when the finish wears off there, it does ruin the illusion. From the picture you sent, it’s hard to tell whether oily residue is the whole problem or just part of it. So, trying the simplest remedy first, begin by cleaning near the handles. James Guth, owner of Chesapeake Painting Services in Annapolis (443-569-2909; chesapeakepainting.net), recommends starting with a cleaning solution of 4 parts lukewarm water to 1 part white vinegar. If you find stubborn residue and think you need something stronger, add a little more vinegar, he says. Don’t soak the door; just wipe. The final pass should be with clear water.
If the finish is still intact, the wood itself should not get damp because you’d be cleaning only the finish. But if the wood fibers darken because they are wet, that’s a sign the finish has worn through and you need to at least touch it up, if not completely refinish the doors.
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To test whether touching up will give you satisfying results, pick a door that needs attention but is not prominent, and use it as a sample piece before you commit to a plan for your entire kitchen. Take down the door and remove the hardware, including the handle. Lightly sand the area, going only with the grain. It typically runs up and down, not sideways, on a door, though the opposite is typically true on drawer fronts. Feather out the edges so there is no sharp distinction between areas where you sanded and where you didn’t. Wipe off the sanding dust.
Then tackle the hardest part of touching up: recreating the white stain and blending it in with the rest of the door. Go to a paint store and get samples of several shades of white or cream, or take a door with you to pick out a color that’s the best match. Then water it down. One recipe calls for 2 parts paint to 1 part water. This Old House suggests 1 part white latex primer-sealer and 3 parts water. Or you can use a ready-made brush-on product, such as Minwax White Wash Pickling Stain ($10.77 a quart at Lowe’s). Wearing rubber gloves, dip a rag into the thinned paint and rub it into the wood where you sanded, in the direction of the wood grain. Let that dry, then add more coats as needed, until the color is close to that on the rest of the door.
Once the stain dries, apply clear finish on the sanded area. Let that dry. Then cover the whole door with finish to help even out the surface. When this coat dries, if the sheen on the repaired area looks different from the rest of the door, rub the whole door with superfine (0000) steel wool to blend everything in. If you can identify the manufacturer of your cabinets and the company is still in business, you may be able to find out the type of finish originally used so you can match it. Otherwise, use water-based polyurethane, but check the test door to make sure the finish sticks.
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If all of this works, you can then touch up the rest of the doors and enjoy how your kitchen looks. And if the touch-ups don’t come out well or the finish doesn’t stick? You can have the cabinets refinished. Painting companies that do this work will remove all of the doors and drawers and completely refinish them and the exposed edges of the cabinet boxes. You can stick with the look you have or switch to a different stain color, or even opt for paint. For a kitchen with 20 doors and 10 drawers, Guth estimated the cost of refinishing with a stain and clear finish at $3,000 to $4,000. Switching to a painted finish might save around 20 percent. “I know it sounds expensive,” he said, “but if you get new kitchen cabinets, you’re looking at $10,000 to $20,000 in most homes.”
Refacing is also an option, but it costs significantly more because the job usually involves buying new doors and drawer fronts as well as covering exposed parts of cabinet boxes with laminate or wood veneer. John Heagy, owner of John Heagy Remodeling, Restoration and Construction in Hunt Valley, Md. (410-343-7295; johnheagy.com), said an average job often comes to around $15,000.
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