I’m also adding a vent range hood.

Alder is a very soft wood. It dings and dents. It normally is not painted because of that, as the paint chips off really easily from any of those dings and dents. Add in the knots in the rustic alder, and you have a major fail on your hands.

If you had a professional cabinet finishing company finish those, they should have recommended buying new doors. It was the only possible route to get good results. Filling knots like that eould cost a lot more than new doors, with a far worse end results.

If you had a wall painter paint them, they probably did not use a cabinet finish, so any wear will be greatly accelerated. Most ”painters” are clueless about cabinet coatings. It will be a bigger, faster fail, if they didnt use the right products and the correct process. Guaranteed that a wall painter fod not.

You will need to buy new doors and strip the boxes, so that a professional cabinet coating can be applied. It is the only real solution. Expect to pay 9-14K for that.

Ugggg thank you for your honesty!

Stripping those by a pro would cost more than buying new. It’s labor intensive. The only cost effective approach to stripping is DIY. That will be quite difficult because of the knot holes and open checks in the rustic texture. Buying new doors is the only real fix here. Join the Kitchen Cabinet Painting Experts group on Facebook, and they can walk you through how to DIY. Or help you find a genuine cabinet finisher.

I’ll have to figure something out. I don’t want the alder wood color throughout the house. It’s depressing.

how much more "depressing" alder is there? I would stop with the altering of anything right now. I would find a wood finisher there locally and probably talk about applying a glaze [..can be subtle or more obvious as shown] finish this off ....then get rocky mountain hardware or something in deep tone for handles etc. All New doors..probably not worth it. defintely not going to strip those.

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The alder is all over the house - bathrooms etc.. it is fine but I just wanted to update the kitchen a bit and make it brighter.

Funny, I went to the Frank and Frank account and the number is not a working number. A search didn’t bring up companies with that name. Seems odd that a pro account doesn’t have any relevant contact info.

They seem knowledgeable … I was going to suggest you contact them, Lee, but I guess you can’t!

if you are now"fine" with it everywhere just focus on getting the kitchen durable enough and working with the knots in an aesthetic sense. Completing what you have started. You do need to toughen up the finish and glazing ..maybe even adding more distressing will work in the Montana rustic atmoshphere more than most places. Search out rustic hardware though.

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I am not here to get business from homeowners reading the forum. Just to share a pro perspective with them.

@User said, "Alder is a very soft wood. It dings and dents. It normally is not painted because of that, as the paint chips off really easily from any of those dings and dents."

Actually, Alder is one of the more commonly painted woods. Many cabinet door companies will use Alder instead of Maple for their paint grade doors. Here is a snip from Barker doors:

Certainly you should avoid a brittle coating, like shellac, when coating Alder, but it is a wood that can be, and often is, painted.

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@Lee Riddle - I would consider looking at replacement paint grade doors instead. So remove the coating from the filler pieces and the sides and fill them in or skin them, then buy replacement doors. You are probably looking at about $40 per door to get ready to paint replacement doors that are good quality.

heres a few.....gather some inspiration ideas and get a pro to complete a finish for you.......you dont need to replace or strip the doors.

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@herbflavor thank you for the input. This small cabin is just a place we go to ski. We are only there 3 or 4 weeks a year. I think the glaze is a good idea. I appreciate it!

@cat_ ky funny this kitchen was in another thread and you loved it????hmmmmm

Oh now I see @cat_ky gives his/her opinion on many things

Many members of this community give their opinions on many things... that is kinda what internet communities do. Also, if you are shocked that people can love something one day and hate it the next, may I recommend clothes shopping with my wife?

@bry911🤣🤣🤣

Wait...you have a cabin that is pretty much all wood and you decided to paint the cabinets WHITE ?!?! Oy...

I saved these pic from real estate listings as the perfect example of what not to do. Not ever.

Don't be ^^these people. Strip them back down or paint them some other rustic color. Green would look nice with all the wood.

They are gray but I get it.

I like the green

I do wish it were darker

Glaze?

Grey? Your pics look white on my monitor. Must be a light grey? Anyway, you said you got it, so off you go on a Google mission to find a shade of green that will look good with the alder in your cabin. :0)

☺️

The walls are light too

This isn’t a great pic but here it is

I also think you should paint your cabinets green. When we bought and renovated our house a year ago, I painted the pine hutch green and left the knotty alder cabinets as they were. Looking at this photo might give you an idea of before and after painting. I would have loved to paint all cabinets green, but the wood is just too nice to mess with! First choice, paint green. Second

choice, return to natural finish.