I'm amazed at all examples on test panels because I wouldn't think stain will stick well enough. Had you not shown those I would have suggested shelving the intire project and touching up the "faded drawers". Can't you remove a door and do tests on the back of it?

start sanding with 120-180 then sand with 280-320 sand paper. you won't need the 400 600. for evaluating color match , you need to have the grain of all the pieces running in the same direction. in your case, rotate your samples 90 degrees. one big reason the doors and sides don't appear to match is that you have very little wood grain in the doors. while the sides are nothing but grain. that difference is going to make matching colors turn you to the dark side. you won't get the color you're looking for with mahogany. if you're going to sand everything down to new wood ,i'd start with maybe golden oak and possibly a little early american. the gel stain may not penetrate enough to color the oak so i'd go with an oil base stain. do i understand correctly that you stained the paper laminate? if so, don't. if it's wood laminate fine ,but don't stain the paper. i'm a bit fuzzy on the final goal of your project , but i thought i sling some thoughts into the air and see if any help . mail me if you have questions .good luck

Thanks for the response!

I'll be completely honest - my wife and I aren't really sure where to go. We aren't design people by any stretch of the imagination.

We know we don't want white, and black or really dark won't work either as we have black appliances. The current color doesn't bother us, but some of the drawer faces are starting to show their wear especially on the island.

Everywhere we researched it seemed as if you aren't able to keep the same color. Is this true? Is it possible to sand down the wood faces and find a stain that matches the paper?

Here are some additional pictures:

1) This picture is overall of the island - it's hard to see, but the middle drawer is the worst with most of the finish worn off in some areas. Also, all doors around the hardware area are very "tacky" from I believe the previous owner. Every time we try to clean them, they get worse tacky wise - I believe the gloss finish is coming off. You can also see some areas of "dark" grain which appears to be grime from over the years settling into the wood. Almost all the cabinets have darker grain around the hardware section. We added the hardware, but the previous owner didn't have any which is why those areas are the worst.

http://i.imgur.com/W0XxHt2.png

2) Here is a closer picture of the island, specifically the middle drawer, and bottom of each door. I pointed out areas of worn finish and wrote out the tacky areas.

http://i.imgur.com/bE0UKSQ.png

3) Overall of our kitchen - Far away, it doesn't look that bad, I think it's only when you get close you see the finish wearing off, and tackiness of the cabinets. Assuming we change out the counter tops, do you think we should just keep the same color instead of going through the hassle of changing it? And if so, as I mentioned earlier, is that possible?

We just want to give it a nice "refresh" without breaking the bank for 30k in new cabinetry.

http://i.imgur.com/E7j4004.jpg

Really appreciate the help!!

Here are your pics:
Before tackling sanding and staining the whole kitchen, I'd first try a good cleaning. Choose a drawer or door to test the methods used in the following 2 sites (one is linked below):
http://www.howtocleanstuff.net/how-to-clean-kitchen-cabinets/

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Here is a link that might be useful: cleaning kitchen cabs

If you are ok with the light natural color (I think it looks great) it is far easier to repair and keep it than outright refinishing the intire kitchen. Even more important is that the refinished cabinets will start looking bad much sooner than the repaired finish will. First objetive should be finding what type clear coat is on it now. My 1st guess is water base urathane,2nd guess is oil base polyurathane and 3rd guess is some kind of modifyed laquer. There is little to no chance of shellac. Time spent researching methods of useing different solvents such as laquer thinner,denatured alcohol and acetone to determine existing finish is worthwhile. If you simply want the fastest short cut,wipe a tacky area with naptha. If it doesn't come completly clean,try acetone then denatured alcohol then laquer thinner. One of those should remove all trace of grim and tacky without much scrubbing. Let area dry a few hours then lightly sand with 220 grit,wipe away dust and touch a wet finger tip to area and compare color to origional color. If color matches apply 2 coats of your choice clear coat feathering onto origional finish. My 1st choice would be Minwax Fast drying Polyeurathane semi-gloss which can be rubbed to a matching sheen if nessary.
If color isn't close enough in wet finger test , I would try a spot of Minwax Natural Wood Finish ( do not let the name fool you,it is only stain,not a top coat) ,let it dry and put a dab of clear coat on to compare color. If color is too light,mix Natural and Golden oak until a matck is found. All that is not etched in stone nor guarantees prefection but instaed implys you sometimes have to monkey with these things and creep up on desired results.

Thanks - I wasn't sure how to display more than one image.

I'm a little confused though - won't sanding display the natural wood?

I'm not sure how applying a chemical to take off the tacky, then sanding and applying only a clear coat will bring back the original color?

You can see some areas here which were cleaned and the finish started to wear off - the color behind it is completely different. If I were to apply only a clear coat here, wouldn't that lighter color stay?

Here is a small example of a spot on a section of the top crown where the finish came off after to trying to clean. This one was my fault, I tried to remove paint using a green scrub pad and mild detergent mixed with vinegar. There are other sections on the doors and fascia which have similar damage.

Update - I took some 320 grit sand paper (out of 220 currently) and rubbed the section shown above some. It made the spot a bigger but the same color blemish. I took my finger wet it with water and then rubbed the spot and the color came back.

So... all I have to do is clean, sand, and poly??

Is it possible these cabinets don't really have any stain on them at all, just a poly which brought out the color more?

Also, I am going to pickup the cleaning products suggested today - looks like my local HD carries naphtha and denatured alcohol - will these also take off the "dirt" woven into the grain in some areas - specifically where the hardware is? There are some areas which are noticeably darker just where hands would usually go which appears to be ground in dirt over time.

Or will this come off once I sand that area?

This post was edited by adgjqetuo on Wed, Jan 14, 15 at 10:16

Thought i'd post another update

I tried using the cleaning chemicals above - first with naptha - nothing happened with this, if anything they felt more tacky - same experience I had with other cleaning products.

Next I tried acetone - this seemed to work a little better but it started to fade the finish and once dried, it was tacky again.

Last I tried the denatured alcohol - like the above two, no apparent difference.

I then took 220 sand paper and did a light sanding. This seemed to do the trick - although it made the door cloudy as I expected. The door feels a lot smoother now and I can't feel any stickiness.

Once I brushed off the dust, I lightly rubbed a rag with naptha on it to help remove the remaining dust. When the door was wet, the color seemed to be back on-par (a little light, but a lot better then cloudy), but as it dried it went back to cloudy.

At this point, should I try putting a small thin coat of MinWax natural on and see if that brings out the color again?

How long should I let it dry prior to applying the poly?

Oil polyurathane drys with a slight anber tint where water base polyacrlic gos on cloudy then drys water clear. Only you eye can tell which is best. Natural topped with Polyacrlic / raw wood topped with polyacrlic / raw wood topped with polyurathane / natural topped with polyurathane. Follow directions on can and notice that if polyacrlic is applied over stain it must dry at least 24 hours.