I know It's been a busy week, but here we are back to the cabinet doors finally! For a quick re-cap: We had a kitchen with white thermo foil, panel cabinets. We did samples of fefinishing options for the client and are going forward with the job. First we took the doors off (labeled them) and removed all the hardware, and brought the doors back to the shop. Next we washed everything down with denatured alcohol. First coat applied was 'Stix' waterbased primer that we had tinted to a natural wood color. Next we mixed approximately 1/2 and 1/2 Old master's wood stain in Maple and Natural on a stryofoam plate and spread it on the surfaces of the cabinets with a chip brush and cheesecloth. We let that all dry. There is a picture with the primer and the maple/natural layer. Next we did two steps together. We mixed 1/2 and 1/2 of Old master's gel stain natural and Early American, applied this with a chip brush and flogged it with cheesecloth to give it the wood pores. It will begin to set up on you so you can only spread it out on about half a door before flogging. Flogging with cheesecloth is basically just balling up the cleesecloth and pouncing out the brush marks which will give the look of pores in the wood. Other types of wood call for other tools for flogging, just look at real wood, different kinds have different pores. Before that layer can set up completely, I add knots and burls, and different accent marks and pounce on them all with the cheesecloth to set them back into the wood. I put early american, cedar, and natural out on a plate to use for this project. I like to use a feather for an organic, free feeling motion for my wood graining. I can get very thin lines and interesting knots that I just can't get with a brush. Sea sponges are good for the marks insects make in the wood. For the doors, I usually do the inside panel first, then tape off the 2 sides gently and do them, then I just use a piece of paper to hold up on the joint where the side piece would be meeting the middle piece. It makes a huge difference creating those joint lines as to whether the cabinets will look like they are really wood or not. Next we will add the accent in dark walnut to really make them look great! I've added some picture here of the steps I've done so far. In case you are wondering where to get old masters wood stain, if you live here in swfla, you can get it at Paint Store Plus on 41 in Ft. Myers. or you can look on their website-- www.oldmastrs.com