From what I understand, a conversion varnish is a durable and preferred wood finish. It requires tools and/or breathing and ventilation things that homeowners can’t replicate at home. From what I understand, air pollution rules in California do not allow this process to be done there, and I first heard of it when someone in California doing a kitchen remodel was getting cabinets from out of state in order to have this finish.

I'm not sure, Nancy, as our cabinets are custom and went through conversion varnish process. Or well, some complicated process. Special booth etc.

What I did find out though now when researching, that there are different varnishes, and not all of them are available in CA,due to very stringent CA rules:

"A low formaldehyde version of conversion varnish is not available for sale in California because it does not meet the state’s volatile organic compound (VOC) standards. Keep in mind that formaldehyde is a VOC and once the finish of regular Conversion Varnish is fully cured before home delivery, there will be no VOC or formaldehyde breathable by the homeowner."

found on the website of a CA-based designer-builder-there is a chapter on cabinets there that goes into expanations and details on different finishes, so it's an informative and interesting read.

He does prefer conversion varnish to all the other paint finishes, (as also our cabinetmaker did) but is an opionated guy in how he writes ..))

Here: http://www.dndb.info/cabinets/

Would be great if pros in the field chimed in.

I do suspect though that paints etc here lack certain ingredients..they remind me of my gluten-free food, like something is missing:) I wonder whether it's just my feeling. But then we don't know where the OP lives, so might not be relevant.

There are several threads on Houzz as well that discuss subject, as far as I understood-I saw them when started googling-but I didn't get to reading them yet.

CV is 20 years ago. A good finisher would be using the waterborne Italian 2K finishes now. All waterborne 2K finishes are usable in CA, with no issues. They are superior to CV.

We use mostly CV

Thank you folks, I am grateful for your advice!

What Celadon said. Correct. The rest is misinformed information mostly from non-finishes and not from CA. I would add even though I primarily use said Italian 2k products there are of late other decent non CV waterborne products around. But never CV. It’s nasty, toxic stuff I don’t go near.