home depot paint department

A:My first suggestion is to check the home imp stores for discontinued cabinets. They change out displays from time to time and CLEARANCE the old displays. Now, to remove the paint. Test to see if they are painted with latex or oil. If they are really old it probably is oil, especially if they are real shiny. Dip a cotton ball in some alcohol, paint thinner, whatever you have. If the cotton balls ad-hears to the paint then you know it is oil; otherwise it is latex. There are various paint strippers on the market (strypeze) however you need lots of ventilation. You could also use a palm sander and sand then. Let the sander do most of the work, don't press too hard. Once you get all the paint off, was the cabinets with warm to hot water. You need to be careful of using any detergent in the water, as this could react to your final finish. If you find, after removing the paint that they have nice wood grain, then I would suggest a semi trsp stain. If the grain isn't very good then a) paint again, B) antique or C) use a solid stain. The solid stain is normally an exterior product, which would be more durable, but requires ventilation. Min wax make a solid , wiping stain for interior. The wiping stain gives you more time to achieve you final color. It doesn't penetrate as quickly. Then as a finish coat, I would maybe suggest a spar varnish; it is water proof and would be more durable for wiping off the cabinets. Hope this helps. BE SURE TO LET THE CABINETS THOROUGHLY DRY AFTER WASHING ALL THE RESIDUE OFF.