Ok, not sure why it only let's me put up one picture at a time. Sorry for multiple posts!

They look like maple to me, but I'm no wood expert!

I used walnut on my mantle, and an inset over my fireplace, it was tricky to get a realistic wood grain, it doesn't cover smoothly. An entire kitchen cabinet set would be difficult in my opinion. I have gel stained using java and it is very easy. I would try to buy some similar cabinets or just doors used on craigslist or second hand place and practice.

Thank you for the feedback! I will def be testing on the three bathrooms I have with the same wood before even thinking about touching the kitchen!

Thank you for the feedback! I will def be testing on the three bathrooms I have with the same wood before even thinking about touching the kitchen!

That looks like a beautiful birds-eye maple... I wouldn't touch them if they were mine. Birds-eye is quite desirable and reasonably rare which makes it expensive. I'd hate to see you lose that graining to a gel stain.

But if you want to change them, I'd check in with the folks on the woodworking forum. There is a particular brand of gel stain they recommend, but I'm thinking a regular stain would be better as to not hide the lovely graining, but just to tone down the color some if you must.

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Birds eye maple

Hmmmm Annie...hard to believe that there would be anything expensive and coveted in our builder grade home! But, obviously, the purchaser can do upgrades and that could've been one of them...I've wondered why it looked like that! Is it strange though that the back of the cabinet has an actual grain to it?

Its common for builder grade frames to be comprised of different woods. My first house had birch frames and oak doors. Your frames could be birch.

I'm not familiar with gel stain, but I know maple does not take regular stain real well.

I do not think it is Bird's Eye maple, it just looks like there are dings in the door to me. I would worry how that would affect the stain, with it potentially pooling in the dings. Good luck.

Our home has maple cabinets which was an upgrade that we paid for when it was built. Your cabinets look like maple or maybe birch. To stain them with regular stain, you would need to remove the clear coat on them. As someone mentioned, maple can be tricky to stain (with regular stain). It needs to be conditioned to help eliminate or reduce the blotching. We had ours done by a professional (with new doors and drawer fronts).

If you are talking about the inside and outside of the center panels being different, it would probably be that it is veneer panels.

Sorry, I don't have any experience with gel stain.

You can see how ours turned out here:

Here is a link that might be useful: Stained maple cabinets

They would put the birds eye out if they wanted it to show as the other graining is pretty standard for maple.

I did my bathroom vanities with gel stain. They were cheap and didn't have much graining. So, I don't mind the outcome. They do look painted. But, I love that the color is the right tone and matches the trim and doors AND it is a huge improvement over the mismatched tones I had before.

I think the trick, in your case, would be to get an even coverage that would still allow the grain to show. But, it can be done.

I wouldn't be in a hurry to change those. Can you live with them a while. They might grow on you. They look nice.

AnnaC54 your cabinets and kitchen turned out great. What a transformation. Was that tremendously expensive? It sounds like you had some issues with your contractor. That is a fear of mine. In the end was the cost of just refinishing the cabinets a big expense compared to buying new?

Gel stain looks like paint if you brush it on & don't wipe it off. I did my whole kitchen, applying w/a rag, then wiping off to blend.

They appear to be Birch with pine frames. In any case, they look to be very nice cabinets, and all solid wood. If it were me, I would either live with them, or if I couldnt do that, I would put the time into stripping them, sanding them, and using regular stain in the color you are wanting. I have Birch cabinets with pine frames, and mine are walnut. Mine have the original 1968 finish on them

Assuming that your two photos are of the same door, I think that the outer frame is solid wood and the panel is finish grade plywood since the two sides are so different. As others have said it is probably birch but might be maple. One way to tell birch from maple is that if you take the door off and rotate it in good light, maple will look relatively the same, but birch will definitely have more sparkle or liveliness to the wood in two directions compared to the other two (ie north-south vs east-west.)

If you wipe the gel stain on thinly, the grain shows through. If you swab it on heavily, it covers much of the grain.

You control how it looks.

You have maple cabinets, solid styles and rails, veneered door panels and face frames. Interior of cabinets could be a laminate but I really can't tell from the pictures. It's likely the finish coat is a lacquer and without removing that, stain will have nothing to 'grab' on to and you'll have a mess on your hands. As others mentioned, maple is notoriously difficult to stain well and gets blotchy even when you are working with virgin wood and non-virgin (meaning sanded or stripped) behaves even worse. I can't make you love your cabinets if your heart is set on a deeper wood tone, but there is no easy fix for that. My advice would be learn to at least live with them if you can't love them and alter other things in your kitchen to make the whole picture more appealing to you - and if you post pictures of the kitchen you can certainly get help here with that. Or...... save for new cabinets.

All what dlm said. If you don't strip, it'll be like putting a wash of color on and extremely hard to get even results. Stripping would be utter h*ll, and then getting the color even on maple almost as bad.

Have you looked at lots and lots of kitchen pix? There maybe inspiration in the finished kitchens blog linked below.
Take your time.

- celtic (who darkly gel stained her giant kitchen in 2006)

Here is a link that might be useful: finished kitchens to explore

You guys are all so awesome!! Thank you for taking time to help me =) I'll play around with the dogs bathroom cabinets (yes, our dog has his own bathroom for bathing after the dog park!) and see what happens!

I thought of something. I have a bedroom set that was pickled pine, you know a pinkish color. I used minwax gel stain to give it a glazed look, The furniture came out a shade darker with stain in the corners. I rubbed it on then wiped it off, leaving stain in the crevices.

I found a picture of what your cabinets might look like when done.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I do not like your wallpaper and I think changing that eyesore would make you like your cabinets more.

Your only option is to totally strip and sand your cabinets. If the clear coat is lacquer and not poly--you will need a very strong stripper. If it is lacquer I wouldn't come near it. That was applied to last and protect. It is not a DIY project!!! That said, I cannot imagine not loving the color and look of your wood work. I agree with others, find something less expensive, less time consuming and with a chance of success to change. If you still can't fall in love with them start saving for all new cabinets. These are too nice to mess with.

No idea on the wood of the cabinets, but I can offer some insight on the staining question -- my husband and I just finished gel staining ours this afternoon!

We used GF Java, and contrary to what you're thinking, the stain doesn't look "painted on" unless you...paint it on, and you don't need to strip your cabinets.

Our kitchen and bath cabinets started as this (in my opinion) horrible, orangey/honey colored oak.

First, we did the bathroom cabinets, which we wanted lighter than the kitchen. To get this look, we applied the stain with a foam brush, and immediately wiped it off with painters rags. We only needed one coat.

For the kitchen, we wanted to get them as dark as possible to hide the wood grain, as we plan to go with a busier granite counter top. To get this look, we meticulously painted three thin coats on with a polyester brush.

For both techniques, we started by washing the cabinets thoroughly with TSP and warm water. After they dried, we sanded the finish off with medium grit sandpaper (120 sheets and a 150 block, to be precise). The beauty of gel, is that you don't have to have a totally barren surface for it to take. Next, we dusted everything off with terry towels to eliminate debris. Then you just apply the stain using whichever technique you prefer. If you do more than one coat, make sure to very lightly buff the surface with steel wool between each layer of stain. We sealed with two coats of GF polyurethane in a satin finish.

It took time, but was actually really easy -- and we love both looks!

How you apply the gel stain is key. Some who use gel stain (Java especially) paint layers on to look opaque, some wipe off. I would get a sample and test it.

I want a reddish brown and will be doing my oak cabinets GF Brown Mahogany. My goal is to change the wood tone and I want to see the grain still like DIY Mermaid's first photo. I see she wiped hers off. Here's a post where someone did two very thin coats. They used GF Antique Walnut and she says the photo appear more red here than IRL.

Your cabinets look maple to me.

If you follow through with the project and end up not liking it, there's always paint. And it's much easier to paint over stain than the other way around. I can't wait to see when people start stripping chalk paint from everything and start liking wood again.

Here is a link that might be useful: Miller Musing blog

I have used alot of bombay mahogany in Polyshades. Its probly reder than your looking for but it does cover a existing finish really well. I do think you would have to do a good tsp cleaning and light sanding to give what ever you do a good surface to grip on. My island was about the color of your cabnets and maple . The first coat looked horrible the second coat better and I nailed it with the third coat. I did a fourth coat on my maple trim and it took it to a dark cherry wood color, almost black. The island takes a beating everyday and it still looks good. Now I am bored with it and ready to paint;)

Back to say if you use GF gel stain you'll, of course, need to make sure you clean them well and scuff them per the directions on the can.

I seriously considered totally stripping my cabinets. The reason I'm not is because the inside panels are veneer. That's not to say it can't be done, but stripping and sanding veneer makes me a little nervous. If mine were solid, I'd strip and stain vs. the gel. It'll be a big job either way, but totally worth it, to me, in the end. You could get a price to have them stripped. I checked that route too, but was completely shocked at the cost and couldn't justify the price in this case.

Please keep us posted with what you end up doing!

I'd give GF gel stain a try. The advantage is that you don't need to strip or sand a lot. I even used it on the fake plastic wood sides of my bathroom cabinet, where it looks like paint. On the oak front, the grain does show through.