I posted something similar to the kitchen section, but someone recommended I post over here too.

My wife and I are looking to refinish our cabinets using General Finishes gel stain.

Our concern is even though the front fascia and doors appear to be real wood, the sides are laminate paper. We are skeptical that the finish color between the laminate and wood will be noticeably different.

I took an old book shelf which was a similar color as the sides of our cabinets with laminate paper over particle board and when I went to stain it with General Finishes brown mahogany, it came out way way lighter then a previous project I used it on which was pine wood.

With the attached picture, each quarter in the test piece is a different sand paper grit. Top right is 600, Top Left is 400, Bottom left is 320 and bottom right is 150 grit. The more course, the darker it was we found.

I personally like the 400 grit sample, but i'm afraid the doors and fronts won't match once stained.

Some of the existing drawers are really starting to fade and have spotty finish left. I believe I would need to sand all wood surfaces down to bare wood using 150 grit paper - correct?

Hoping you can provide some advice!

This post was edited by adgjqetuo on Mon, Jan 12, 15 at 11:32