I am almost finished painting my old golden- aka orange -oak cabinets. I sanded, primed, and painted them in an off-white. Then glazed them. The umber was too dark for me so I went with a very light glazed look in BM Pismo Dunes ( 1 part paint to 4 parts glazing medium). I applied it to the panel edges with an applicator I got at Michaels which put down a very thin line and let that dry. Then I applied a wash using the glaze over the whole door, but wiped off most of it from where I didn;t want it, leaving it heavier in the crevices and along the panel edges. The cabinet bases got the same treatment: I 'pinstriped' where I wanted it heavier (ie along the crown moulding) and then color washed the remainder.
Since your doors are already white, I wonder if you might be able to just very, very lightly sand them ( you might not even need to) then do the same glazing technique that I did to 'outline" the edges and then the glaze color wash would maybe be enough to take the whiteness out and lend a softer antique look to the overall color. Boy I hope so b/c it would save you a TON of work. Try it on the backside of a door or 2- nothing to lose there. Good luck! One thing I just thought of: I did not apply the polycrilic over my glazed cabs since it made them a little too shiny for me but I believe you are supposed to. So you'd probably want to add that step in.
Maybe over on the painting forum they might have better advice than my novice take on things....

Here is a link that might be useful: painted/glazed cabs

Thanks for the info. It seems that I could skip the painting step, although I was thinking about repainting them to a color that looks like the cabinets at kitchen showrooms that are more of a cream color. I feel like my cabinets are too white looking even though they are technically a cream color. Would doing the wash you are referring to automatically darken them to a warmer-creamier color without having to repaint them first?
I had originally asked how to do this at a paint store and was told to use a stain color in the crevices to get the antiquing effect, but thought it just made them look dirty instead of the nice look of a professional job.
I see you used Benjamin Moore Pismo Dunes? What color paint did you mix with the glaze? Since my cabinets are are already painted do I use the glaze alone or do I still mix it with paint? Have not worked with glaze before.

You can glaze over the white paint already there. I would clean them good, but I would not sand them. Supposedly that would leave marks for the glaze to get into. A friend of mine had her cabinets made. She was shocked because the painter painted them a bright white. He then applied the glaze using rags. She was worried because she did not want white cabinets. They turned out a beautiful creamy color. Just beautiful. When you apply glaze it can be wiped off easily. So you can practice till you get the effect you want. Just wipe off and try again. Look it up on the net there are a lot of sites that tell you step for step how to glaze your cabinets. Good luck.

Good point Colleenkay about the sanding, I hadn't thought of the sanding lines grabbibg too much glaze. KMarcel, I believe the glaze/color wash would darken them to the color you are looking for without needing to paint them first. Lucky you if so!
The glazing medium has no color to it. You add it to paint so that the paint has a longer open time so you can work with it easier. With the glazing effect you are wiping the color on and off until you get the amount of color you like and the glaze just gives you longer to work with it. If it gets too dry before you get the look you want, just dip your rag into a little water to dampen it and start wiping again. My cabinets' base color is BM White Sand before I glazed them. I used the Pismo Dunes as the paint color for the color wash/glazing look and mixed it with the plain untinted glaze ( I did 1 part paint and 4 parts glazing medium but you can adjust that). The glaze reminds me of white Elmer's Glue- it looks white to start with but dries clear so that only the paint color you mix with it shows in the end. As recommended elsewhere on this site, I used Viva papertowels as the "rag" to apply the glaze. I hope I have clarified some of the glazing aspect for you. Try it on the back of a door and see how it looks. Let us know how you make out...

The biggest problem in glazing white painted oak cabinets is that if you did not use a double coat of primer and paint or a fillable type sanding sealer that your "final" paint job will still telegraph the underlying grain of the oak. That's bad news when you go to glaze, because the grain will grab the glaze and hold on to it, making it difficult to not "highlight" that underlying oak grain. That's why a double coat of primer AND top coat (with sanding in between the coats) is so important on oak. Oak is very difficult to get a smooth paint job on. That's why maple or poplar are usually the preferred woods for painted cabinets.

If you want cream cabinets with a glaze, and you're dealing with oak, your best bet is to start with a color that's fairly close to what you want them to end up looking like and then only "highlight" glaze the actual crevices rather than the whole door as you normally would.