Most of the cabinet refacing that we do involves new doors. It has been proven to be more cost efficient. If we were to price repainting excising doors vs new doors people save on average 50%. You can find local door manufacturer who can even paint them for you. All you need is to paint cabinet boxes

If you want to reuse the doors, which is good, 3M Safest Stripper is a good, non-toxic product that produces good results and is readily available at your hardware store. Follow product instructions. Depending on the finish, sometimes you have to repeat the application. After the surfaces are clean, sand with 220 grit. Apply your stain (either water or oil-based) and finish with corresponding water or oil-based clear coats--usually two to three.

The stripper will take any kind of finish. Just be patient with letting the product do its work--usually 45 min to an hour before scraping it. Apply it very generously, otherwise it will dry fast and won't remove as much.

My pleasure! Do wear gloves.

I used CitriStrip which is also a low odor environmentally safe stripper and Zinsser also makes a citrus stripper which works similar. It is messy and while the stripper is environmentally safe, it is acidic and will irritate hands and take the finish off anything it touches, so protect flooring and do doors in a basement or garage. I put the stripper on at night and gently lifted off the finish with a putty knife the next morning. Use a generous amount of stripper. I needed a second round for some areas, but usually the second round only needed a few hours. The curves are a bit of a challenge. I used 3M stripping pads - the green ones on curves - with a dose of stripper. I cut the stripping pads into thirds. Make sure to neutralize the stripper with mineral spirits or similar - read and follow the label direction. Then sand - you won't need to do too much since the stripper will remove the finish, but it will need smoothing. I had to use a needle to work gunk out of the space between the panel and the frame of the doors - be patient and prepared for detail work.

With oak you need to be cautious about the grain over saturating with stain and becoming too dark. Test staines on the back of drawer boxes.

A refinisher rather than someone who refaces would be the person to call if you want someone else to do it. A refinisher also might be able to strip them in a special tank so you can just do the stain and finish. My sister had her cabinets done rather reasonably. We live in the midwest and sometimes things are less expensive here.

If you just want to darken the cabinets, some have done that by applying gel stain like a paint. Then the cabinets are just lightly sanded to roughen the surface and the gel stain is applied. It does not have the work of stripping involved. Personally, I like the look of a properly finished piece of wood better, but that might not be such a big deal considering the effort saved in not stripping.

I have a friend who is thinking of using that same backsplash with her oak cabinets. If you happen to have a pic from farther back, it would be great to show it to her so she can see the the effect of the mosaic.

Thank you so much! I was trying to gently warn my friend that it might be too busy:) However, I try to remember different styles for different folks. I will not post the photos anywhere - just show her and then I will disguard them.

I did do cream subway tile with mine:

https://www.houzz.com/photos/my-pics-work-in-progress-phvw-vp~57088087

https://www.houzz.com/photos/my-pics-work-in-progress-phvw-vp~93784356