Kitchen cabinets

[Maarkr]

My cabinets are nice oak, cathedral style doors, but stained dark walnut, which makes them look old --they are about 20 years old anyway, but good quality. We thought about stripping and staining them. We took off a drawer front and stripped some stain off, but the oak pores were very hard to clean up--typical oak, hard to totally strip without dipping. We'd also have to deal with some fine raised molded edges that would be hard to totally strip without damaging it. Now I'm thinking of painting them. I thought of spraying ( I have a compressor and finish sprayer) a primer coat then a finished color coat, followed by urethane. Can this be done without worrying about scratching the finish? ...I want a good, hard finish. I though that maybe an epoxy-base primer would make the finish stronger? Any special urethane to seal the paint? I want to do this right. Thank you for your opinion. :)

[dhill]

Just my opinion, but yes, I think you could paint them exactly like you're suggesting. Use Kilz or equivalent primer so the stain doesn't bleed through the paint. But before you paint I would consider again the natural wood finish. You can strip that oak, get all the old stain off possible and then simply add a clear urethane finish. Because that previous stain is dark, you may not be able to get all of it out. Use that to your advantage and let it stay. Oak is a beautiful wood with a lot of grain and the darker grain should compliment the natural color if you stip and clear coat. Try a place and see what happens. You can always paint over it.