I hated my drab, boring cabinets. They were finished in a honey oak. I love the look of cherry, so I stripped them and used a stain/varnish all in one product.
My problem is that it does not look good. It's hard to get smooth and even and it is already chipping off. What can I do? Should I have just stained and then varnished? Please help. I don't know what to do now!
I have run into this problem quite often. I think on some new unfinished wood projects, and all in one stain/varnish can work, but I still am not crazy about it because for me, I just can't control it in the same way I can using a separate stain and a separate finish.
Now you have a real problem, because to be able to really get it even, you may need to strip or sand off the old finish and start from scratch. This can really be time consuming.
However, there are some pretty good products out there that might make life a little easier for you if you are going to strip off the old finish. One of them is made by a company called SoyClean which uses only all natural products. Their paint stripper product is safe for the environment, cleans up with water, non toxic and the list goes on.
If you want to try this product just go to the following link: SoyClean
You can also contact your local paint store for other products that will do the trick. You will have to use so muscle to get the job done.
If you decide to go the sanding route, you will need a good orbital sander with a few different grits of sandpaper. Depending on how thick the finish is, that will determine what grit you will need to use. You may have to start with and 80 grit, but I would prefer a 100 grit paper first and then work your way down to finer grits of paper. You want to be able to get the finish off but at the same time you don't want to put big groves in the wood that will give you a bad finish.
For the doors and drawer fronts, there is an easy alternative, but it will cost you a little money and that is you can have them professionally dipped. Once this is done, when you get them back the finishing job will go a whole lot easier.
I hope this helps. Maybe someone else out there can give us some more of their time tested ideas.
Rick Maselli Founder of Showroom411.com