Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - refinishing "antiqued" cabinets

I just moved into a home with many outdated appliances and fixtures. I want to refinish the cabinets in the kitchen, as I cannot afford to replace them. The previous owner told me that the cabinets had been "antiqued", so I have no idea how to go about refinishing them. Do I need to strip them and add a stain? Will that even work in this scenario? Also, I read a post that suggested using a wood venir to refinish cabinets- would this work? I would appreciate any suggestions that I can get. Thank you!

Back in the 1960's, antiqueing kits were the rage. Unfortunately, now, most people no longer want it around. The process was basically to add a basecoat of color (virtually a coat of paint) then to apply a darker glaze to simulate wood grain and finally to apply finish over to protect the finish.

Refinishers hate to see antiqued furniture come in the shop. The finish is difficult to remove and leaves remnants in the corners and cracks that must be scrapped out.

The best way to remove the finish is to use a semi-paste remover. Apply this liberally and allow it to sit for about 15 minutes. Don't scrape it off as recommended by the manufacturer. Obviously they want you to use as much remover as possible!!

After the initial coat begins to lift and wrinkle the old finish, add additional coats of remover directly over the previous coat. Keep the piece wet with remover until you are able to take a putty knife and (with light pressure) scrape off the old finish down to the wood. When it has gotten to this point, scrape off the old finish and remover and proceed to wash it down with a fiber pad and denatured alcohol. The denatures alcohol will further dissolve the "goo" and will not raise the grain of the wood.

When you have removed as much of the finish as possible, there will probably still be some residual amounts of the "paint" in the corners and cracks. A good sharp scraper can then be used to remove the remainder of the finish.

As far as applying veneer to the facings, this can be done using contact adhesive and veneer, but this is something the novus should not attempt to do. It involves a significant expense for materials and the proper trimming tools to make the job look nice.

CD

Antiquing is just another painting process. You can strip this as you would any other finish. The veneer mentioned is part of a process called refacing. This essentially consists of applying a layer of veneer over the old surface to achieve a fresh look.