yuk. walls. To the left of the curtain you can see where there were pictures. Told hubby we have to wash them before we paint. He thinks Kilz will be enough. I think he is wrong.

Strangely, I sniffed the curtains and they didn't smell. The owner died in Nov so it'sbeen vacant at least that long. The place has a smell that I noticed, but not everybody does at first. More noticeable on a wet day. Her furniture is still in there too.

all things considered, i think the seller did a quick and dirty spruce up job for a better sell. the living room walls look for all the world like a smokers room with brand new curtains. the kitchen is a "wth?"space. it looks like they scrubbed the finish off doors or re-coated the face of the cabinets. how about a pic of a door. taken from the top down at a 45 degree angle?

Smokers do not even realize that the buildup is happening over time until they move a photo or something.

Try a mixture of 1/2 quart of Bleach to 1/2 quart of water. Yes it is a strong mixture but it works. Using a spray bottle start where the ceiling meets the wall at the top and spray the wall. The tar will dissolve and run down the walls. Wiping it with a towel to clean it. The bleach will also whiten the paint a lot. You can try the same on the cabinets.

Warning on the walls... Do not use Behr or Valspar paint. To cover something like that you will need 3 or 4 coats of the stuff just to put one good coat of paint on a wall (even a new constructed one) and still will have to go back and paint over blotches. Behr and Valspar paint has to be the most cheapest made and over priced garbage sold.

It's an estate, I don't think they did a thing to it, not even the curtains. Maybe somebody had them cleaned. The tile wall of the bathtub is cleaner than mine! We don't close for a month, so I can't get any more photos till then. I am just trying to assess our options about those cabinets. Still trying to get $ out of them for hot water heater that failed inspection. Think we asked for too little, but that ship has sailed. She lived there 12 years, it's about 30 years old, so I think any cabinet work was done by previous owners.

We will be renting this out, hopefully the decent appliances ( compared to some) will help counteract the cabinets. The microwave is a convection oven. Many times these units don't even have over the range micros.

Any ideas for quick and easy and cheap cabinet fix? Is gel stain on frames an idea that could work to maybe bring them closer to door color?

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/kitchbath/msg0120495626137.0120523228576.jpg

Here is another picture . I posted in the kitchen forum, but realized woodworkers might have better ideas on cabinet refinish/repair. Photo not on my ipad, so I just linked to it.

Thanks

I second the TSP washing then painting. Simple, don't have to worry about matching stains etc.

Gel staining frames to match smoke stained patina on the doors is certainly an origional approach. It makes me wonder if the same is possible on walls.

Only someone characterized as a slumlord would plan on slapping paint over existing nicotine stains or disguising damaged finishes by gel stain. Since I'm sure that you don't want to be known as that, you need to clean the entire condo, top to bottom, ceiling to floors. Then paint the entire condo top to bottom. Second the shellac based primer. Water based will just have bleedthrough. All new flooring materials too. That's the ONLY approach that works with nicotine damage. Some people end up just gutting to the studs and replacing everything.

I never said I wouldn't CLEAN it first! We plan to paint. I don't think we have the skill, or time to paint the cabinets properly, and we aren't ready to spend the $ now for new ones. After the doors are cleaned we'll see what the color is. It's weird that the same color (if its from the smoke) is not on the face frames......

The place does not stink. I am the only one who even noticed (out of three of us) and I am super tuned to smoke smells.

I gel stained an oak headboard to a nice dark mahogany sort of color. It turned out quite well, which is how I came to think of darkening the face frames to a tone closer to the door.

@hollysprings....I don't think cosmetics that aren't up to par qualify for the term slumlord....

@GreenDesigns,

At some point we may replace the cabinets, but right now we want to fix it up and see if we can rent it (with washed cabinets, painted walls and washed/replaced carpet!)

Would it be possible, for the SHORT term, to sand and put on 2 coats of paint with a roller? I know spraying is best, but that's not an option right now (we don't have the equipment of the know-how!) . Would paint rolled on last for 2 years or so? Trying to get too much done will eat all our potential rental income right off the bat and will cost us a month of rental as well. Economics comes into play here, and we won't see enough increased rent to spend a lot of time of $ on the cabinets right now.

before you gel stain the doors, try scrubbing the face with scotch bright and a sink cleaner in water and wipe off before it dries. put some elbow grease into it. you might be able to scrub off the white to match the door face. why try to match stain,(real hard for the novice) when you can take off. it's worth a try. if you want cheap and quick, use zinzar(sp?) stain block, it's a white primer, and hides a multiple of sins. including water stains, wood knots, tobacco stains and odors.true washing the walls 1st will get you better results . but for fast and cheap, the primer alone will cover the stains. it''s a slightly modified shellac. if you wash the walls, be careful not to over saturate the surface. wet yes, but not running down.

@Jeff, Thanks for the advice, but I'm confused (easy to do..) Do you mean scrub the doors or the face frame? I planned to wash the doors first to determine their true color, I'll wash the faceframe too of course. I see some white in the faceframe and it make me wonder if they were the pickled oak that was popular when these were built (1986). Could be someone got new doors that weren't pickled. So are you saying scrub the white off the frames, or scrub the doors? I was going to gel the frames, not the doors...the doors would be too big a surface to potentially mess up.

For the walls I read to try this,http://www.kilz.com/primer/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ae8adb233122d310VgnVCM100000176310acRCRD I think it's similar to what you suggested but I will look up zinzar also. Hubby likes the idea of priming vs washing. I vote to do both, at least in the living room. I didn't notice as much yellow in the master bedroom.

Do smokers tend to mainly smoke in the living room ? (yes I know the hvac carries it). There was a spare hvac filter, so I think she actually kept up with filter changes. We are getting the hvac serviced.

my house was occupied by a smoker, and the Zinsser Shellac based primer sealed in the smoke smell. Does not matter what room the smoker prefers, smoke goes everywhere.

ick!

Here's my sister's method for dealing with heavy nicotine staining and fire stains - she and BIL did a lot of rehab work.

KILZ - the alcohol-based white stuff. Wash the woodwork with mild soap and water, but one careful coat of KILZ on walls and ceilings is enough to seal in the smoke odor. Then paint it with the wall paint of your choice.

You will need to have the ducts cleaned.

Rip out carpet, if any (I can't tell from the pictures), and replace the drapes with something washable. Thoroughly scrub floors and inside cabinets.

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As for the cabinets ... if they are sturdy, try cleaning them thoroughly with soap and water, then mineral spirits ...

It's odd to have the white bodies and cream doors, and gel stain would NOT even things out ... you could take the doors and drawers to someone with a spray booth and have them paint to match the frames, or paint to contrast with them.

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For a rental, CLEAN beats stylish.

don't feel bad not understanding cindy, i have never been accused of clarified instructions. what i'm suggesting is to scrub the the cabinet frame. it's probable someone altered the finish on the doors, because of the uneven finish. so you want to try to take off SOME finish from the frame work to see if the colors match. with this kind of job, always start with the least aggressive cleaning and altering the the finish. namely scrubbing the frame. if the wood colors match, do the happy dance. if not, take the doors off and stain to match the cabinet frame. or take the doors off and prime with the zinnser and paint with latex enamel . it's durable,easy to brush on, dries fast and cleans up with soap and water. feel free to e mail with questions.

I will start with scrubbing the cabinets and see where to go go from there. I'm not against painting them, as long as its not a big project. I am not patient. I hate waiting between coats etc.

@lazygardens. I think I will try washing with vinegar and water, then Kilz. As far as the curtains....I actually sniffed them (yuk!) to see how bad they were, and they didn't smell! What! I was thinking the sheers were washable (or easily replaced) and I'd take the swags to the cleaners. Maybe she got them after she quit. I seriously did not smell a thing when I sniffed them close, as horrible as it was for me to do. The house was clearly a smoker's, yet it doesn't reek, its just an odor I noticed and obviously the walls confirmed it. Hubby thought it just smelled like an old person house (she was in her 70's) I wonder if she got the curtains, or cleaned them after she quit? She passed away in November, but I don't know when she moved out, perhaps she went to a relative's or nursing.

One more ?? if you're still with me...how do I find someone with a spray booth? (I'm in South Jersey) I could paint the frames white myself and have the doors done by someone. That might be a $ wise option with a decent result.

Thank you all, this is new territory for us as non-smokers, novice landlords and people who keep up with maintenance etc. We just never let things get bad. You can bet smoking will not be allowed under our lease! or pets, or kids, or drinking, or eating....just kidding.

To find someone with a spray booth ... call custom cabinet makers, furniture makers and auto body painters. Tell them you want to have doors and drawers painted with a good cabinet-quality paint

Someone will be willing to do it ...

I just saw this and had a bad deja vu.

I picked up cabinets from a reuse center. Nice, custom, plywood & sturdy.

They were so coated with nicotine that even stain-blocking Kilz (better for drywall, anyway) kept turning parchment color on my test cabinet.

The cabinets laughed at TSP.
They howled at mineral spirits.
They scornfully turned parchment at Windex. Bleach. Ammonia.
They giggled and gurgled while I actually washed them in the TUB with Dawn & bleach.

With each attempt, my hands and arms were stained the same, Gawd-awful brown. I was beginning to fear I'd die of nicotine poisoning and I was fighting the urge to vomit. I'm a never-ever-smoked-anything nonsmoker.

Then, since I was painting anyway, some kind soul mentioned an oil-based primer meant for wood. I think it was BIN or Zinsser. Problem solved. I've come to believe that oil based primers put anything water-based to serious shame. I now, don't waste my time with anything else.

Again, with advice from the Paint board, I used Cabinet Coat paint and I've been hooked on that ever since.

Since I don't yet have walls to paint, I can't speak to them.
Good luck with such grossness. Can you imagine these people's lungs and nasal passages? Nummy.

i have never found anything better than the stuff called purple power for removing any oil, grease, tar and nicotine. buy it at an auto store. 10-20% in cold water. wipe down with a cold wet rag.

Can you please tell me how to get nicotine stains out of my cabinets doors

Did you read this thread before digging it from the grave?

try Jeffs purple degreaser. Zep makes some. Sold at home depot. otherwise you have to prime and recoat.

painted White.They are not painted white I bought them from Home Depot White

My cabinets used to look like this white. These are the other cabinets in my garage I want it back to this way right here

I am dealing with the same thing on kitchen cabinets. Can clean painted walls and wood really well. The nicotine rolls down the walls with spray cleaning vinegar. But, when I spray the kitchen cabinets, it’s like the nicotine stain is stuck in the surface. Cabinet’s look like yours. Really nice cabinets, except for the stain. KCMA cabinets.