Refinishing kitchen cabinets

Aug 27, 2003 3 Replies
B

We have cherrywood kitchen cabinets with lots of detail in the woodwork. These are custom cabinets built by a local cabinet maker. The applied finish is lacquer. Over the years the finish has deteriorated due to steam and moisture. We'd like to refinish them with polyurethane. However, I understand that polyurethane will not bond properly to lacquer.


  1. Is it possible to restore the appearance of the wood where its stained with moisture marks?


  1. Can the lacquer be stripped?

  2. As a last resort, can the cabinets be painted?
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B
  1. The moisture marks you refer to may go away with stripping if it hasn't gone to far. not sure.

  1. Lacquer can be stripped easily just follow the directions on your choice of strippers and it comes right off.

  2. Don't paint it. If you really want to give up after all the work of stripping painting would be easy enough. Seal first.
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B

Thanks for the reply. We will try it on one door first. We talked to people at two paint stores who told us to forget it; there wasn't much that could be done.

Its a real shame that our cabinet maker chose to use lacquer. When we contracted with him, it didn't occur to me that he would do that. At the same time, my brother also had custom cabinets made, his were polyurethaned and are holding up very well. The craftsmanship and detail on ours' is superior, but the finish just didn't hold up.

Bob

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