Help! I'm refinishing my honey oak cabinets. I stripped and sanded for days and thought that i got all of the honey oak colour out but when I started staining (american chestnut) it was yellowing still. So I just went heavy on the stain to darken (3 coats at least) and let it dry for a week. I went to put my top coat on the first door and it's almost like it's still wet, it's smudging all over. I should mention I've only stained about 1/3 of the doors because of space restrictions. Now I don't know what to do. I think I have 4 options.

1. Switch stain colour to a darker one, same brand. But worry that they may look different than the ones that didn't get any america chestnut stain because of the amount of wood I'd have to take off.

2. Go really dark on a gel stain and hope it covers everything.

3. Paint cabinets (i should note I used a drum sander to bring out the wood grain. So it'll be a lot of sanding to get them smooth.

4. Keep going with what I'm doing but use a spray lacquer instead of brushing on.

I should note, I'm also worried that maybe there is residual lacquer in the crevices that the stripper and hand sanding didn't get. It was just so thick!

I'd also just like this project to be over now. I have 3 toddlers running around getting into the cabinets.

Hi,

Can you please specify steps for your project?

What grit paper was used for sanding, what product was used to stain? How long between coats did you wait before applying additional stain?

What is the top coat being used?

It is important to know that all previous finish needs to be removed before applying any new finish.

Please let me know.