SHOULD YOU PAINT OR STAIN YOUR KITCHEN CABINETS?

In this post, I will focus on what products I used to update the kitchen. To find out what changes to make, I asked myself the following: what would have the biggest visual impact and could be done over a couple of weekends? 

 

·       THE KITCHEN CABINETS! 

 

Though in mint condition, they were this varnished honey oak color, which screamed for a color update and was definitely clashing with the brand-new grey-ish wooden floors. The living-area, including the kitchen, was an open space and the clean lines of the rest of the area clashed with the older look that the honey oak wood gave to the kitchen. Anyways, after doing some research, I was down to a couple of options. Replacing the cabinets was not one of them because of cost and timeline. I needed a solution that would give a new life to the Honey Oak cabinets and blend with the rest of the space. So, my choices were:

 

1.     Paint the cabinets using oil or latex paint.

2.     Stain the cabinets with standard liquid or gel stain 

 

1.    Paint the cabinets using oil vs. latex paint

 

A.   Oil Paint:

I did some research on updating the kitchen cabinets using Oil and Latex paint. For Oil based paint: 

·       Application:

Applying this type of paint is relatively easy.

 

·       Time:

The negative side of slow drying is that it can take a long time before you can apply a second coat and even longer to be able to use the cabinets.

 

·       Finish:

The finished product is smooth, almost perfect because oil-based paint dries much slower and creates a hard and durable finish. However, oil paint may yellow over time and the paint finish will hide the wood grain.

 

·       Cleaning:

This type of paint is very hard to clean with water and soap, which makes the cleaning process that much harder. 

 

B.   Latex Paint:

·       Application:

Latex paint would be much easier to use for beginners (like myself) because it is much more forgiving than oil-based paint.  

 

·       Time:

Latex paint is great for a project that is time-sensitive as the paint dries very fast.

 

·       Finish:

The finished product is smooth but, it doesn’t yellow as much as oil-based paint. However, the paint finish will hide the wood grain.

 

·       Cleaning

Latex paint is easily cleanable with water and soap.

 

The issue with both paint options above, is that paint smoothens out the wood grain and imperfections. 

Seeing as I was working on a chalet, I decided to not use paint because I wanted to keep that woody feel to the cabinets. Plus, later, it would be harder to touch up painted cabinets, trying to find the exact same shade of paint is nearly impossible. 

 

The choice came down to Liquid vs Gel Stain!

 

2.    Stain the cabinets with standard liquid vs. gel stain 

 

A.   Liquid Stain:

After doing some research and asking around, the decision rested on the consistency of the color and easiness of the application. So, if I were to go with the traditional liquid stain, the wood grain would be preserved and can clearly be seen seeing as the coloring would be more transparent. However, because of its thin consistency and my lack of experience, it would be harder to apply it evenly as the stain would be runnier and may result in the creation of drops. Therefore, seeing as this would be one of the first times staining anything, maybe liquid stain isn’t such a good idea for me.

 

B.   Gel Stain:

Gel Stain has a thicker consistency, which means that it will stick better to vertical surfaces like cabinets, and it gives you more time to apply the stain as it will not be runny. Also, the staining results in more uniform coloring, but, despite the opaquer results, you could still see and feel the wood grain through it. This was fantastic because I still wanted to keep that woody feel to the chalet, to bring a little of the forest into the living area. However, it is important to note that if you have a lot of crevices, details, and corners it would be harder to use Gel stain because it can pool in those areas. 

 

With all that information in mind, I decided to go with staining kitchen cabinets using gel wood stain!

 

BONUS TIP: to save you some time…

 

I got way too excited and decided to go to the hardware store with a PICTURE of the cabinets… learn from my mistake, that was the most useless trip to the store ever! I arrived at the store and went to the staining aisle, I had narrowed it down to either dark gray, dark brown, or simply black for the kitchen cabinets. Out of curiosity, I asked the clerk which color she would recommend, and she said that she couldn’t say because it depends on how it looks on the actual cabinets. However, she did give me the genius idea to bring a sample of the wood that will be stained, and they can test the colors on it so that I can decide which one to take. 

 

And so, I did. I went back to the chalet, removed the hardware off one of the cabinet doors, and took the door to the hardware store. The clerk was able to test two coats of each of the colors and I decided to go with the black because although it is very dark, I could still see the wood grain and imperfections, which was the desired outcome. The only brand of gel stain they had in the store was MinWax Gel Stain and I purchased the 946ml can for about 20$ and in total, I used 1 1/2 cans for two coats of all the kitchen cabinets. 

 

There you have it my lovelies! How I decided to gel stain vs other methods of color changing the cabinets. The better part is that this reasoning can be applied to almost every other wooden cabinet in your home.

 

Don’t forget to tell me if you enjoyed this post and if you found it helpful in the comment section. Also, if you have any additional tips don’t hesitate to write them down as well.

 

If you are in the same situation as me and would like to gel stain your kitchen cabinets but aren’t sure how to. Here’s a post I wrote (how to update your kitchen cabinet using
water-based gel stain?) explaining the step-by-step process I went through staining kitchen cabinets. 

 

Do you have an interior design block or are you looking for advice on a specific issue?

Please send me an email or write to me on Facebook or Instagram and it would be my pleasure to help you out.

 

Cannot wait to hear from you!

 

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