Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Tinted Urethane

I have oak kitchen cupboards from the 80's that I hate and would really like to change the stain colour of. They are a real orangey golden oak that has darkened over time. There are more than 50 cabinet doors and drawers that would need to be refinished, which I certainly don't have time to do, so I was wondering if it is advisable to use tinted urethane on top of the existing finish in order to darken the cupboards.

If this is not possible, could someone advise me on how to properly refinish the cupboards. I have tried to refinish the back of one cabinet door just to see what it would look like but it turned out quite disasterous looking! I used gel stripper and then sanded, but the previous dark stain is very deeply penetrated into the large grain of the wood and no matter how how I tried, I couldn't remove it. What am I doing wrong??

Thanks

For a job of that scope, I would be interviewing professional finish strippers, looking for one who has a hose down stripping operation.

Trying to alter the appearance by adding a tinted varnish might be more of a challenge than I would undertake. Getting consistent results over the natural darkening of the light, air, and grime could be disappointing.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the reply Chris, even though that wasn't the answer that I was hoping for! I can't afford to hire a professional to refinish the cupboards, which is why I was hoping to be able to do something myself to change the look of them. Oh well, 80's will be back in style again some day, won't it? I'll just have to wait it out with my orange oak cupboards until then.

Thanks

Shannon