Buying houses with wood stain you don't like?

[steph96]

We are looking at houses and I'm really struggling with the cabinet colors. I'm a fan of darker stains. How hard would it be to change the color of the stain? All the other trim in the house is white, so it would only involve changing the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. This house is right at the ideal amount we want to spend.

House 1:



We are also looking at another house and once again, I'm not a fan of the stain. This house has a ton of woodwork! I'm not sure if we should throw out this house just because of the wood color. I'm wondering if we could pick paint colors to help it. Obviously we would not be able to attempt to change all the stain! This house is at the top of our budget.

House 2:

[kaylie]

Our house came with a stain that I hate - trims, ceiling beams, cabinets - the whole shebang. I actually like light cabinets, so I'm eventually going to use a Rustoleum kit (~$200 for a large kit) to paint them white. They also have dark colors - google rustoleum cabinet transformations to see.

Painting trim has been pretty easy - I use Behr Ultra in pure white and it takes about two coats.

If you want to paint those ceiling beams, I would suggest hiring a professional. We DIY'd it and it was awful. Lots of neck pain and messiness. Plus it was hard to keep the paint off the ceiling, so we had to paint that afterwards to hide our mistakes.

[steph96]

Both of us agreed that we would want to stain them. I painted the cabinets in our current home and although they look great, we both agreed it's not something we would do again.

[aweilba]

You could probably use a gel stain, which would be fairly easy.

[adhdfashion]

The color of the cabinets and wood didn't stop me from buying the house we are in now. The rest of the house is exactly what I wanted the the layout and lot are perfect. The rest is nothing a little elbow grease won't fix.

[sillygoosegirl]

Isn't there a product that is like a combination stain and varnish that you can use to darken finished wood? I've never used it, but I think it exists.

[teeah22]

I just saw a pin on this yesterday. She used gel stain to go from honey oak to espresso.

www.monicawantsit.com/2012/02/staining-oak-cabinets-espresso-color.html

[steph96]

Teeah, thank you so much! That makes it seem so easy!

I thought that the cabinets would have to be stripped, stained, and then have a poly coat put on over it. Now I am relieved!