How to Stain OAK Cabinets…the simple method (without sanding)!

I know, I know…where have I been?!?! Well, finishing up house projects. Lots and lots of them. We have put off finishing the last bits of the house for long enough. And now they are DONE. And wow, it feels good!!! Thanks to a new year and a goal to have them all completely finished.

Remember how I shared our Stained/Painted Banister last week? Well, I mentioned to some in the comment section that we were working on staining our bathroom cabinets (which were the last thing in the house that still had that gorgeous orange oak color……ha, I kid) — and now they’re done too! Both upstairs bathrooms are stained, top coat applied, dried, and beautiful!

Which is funny that all it took was a little stain to make these bathrooms look so much better. Because when we moved into the house almost 2 years ago, our plan was to tear out the cabinets and install new ones. We also wanted to install a different shower and possibly change out the tile too. But, the budget never allowed it (and we always found other things to spend any extra cash on). We finally decided that even though the tile wasn’t our first choice, it really wasn’t all that bad……and that staining the cabinets would be good enough for now. And now that it’s done, we’re so MAD we didn’t do it earlier. We actually love the clean dark look of this Java stain….and it gives a great pop to the bathroom! And the best part — it was CHEAP and super FAST to do!

When I dug through all of the “before” pictures that I took before moving into our house…..I realized I didn’t have any that captured the old color and look of the cabinets very well. Ooops. But the picture below gives you a pretty good idea.

Because it’s stain, you still get to see the wood grain. Even with this really dark brown Java stain. And let me tell you, applying this gel stain is SO much easier than painting. You don’t have to worry about paint lines and/or your paint getting too thick and clumpy, etc. It really is SO much easier to apply. And nope, not a single need to sand any of that wood before applying the stain. Can I get a HALLELUJAH?!!

All we stained were the doors and the front facing section of the cabinets. Just like cabinets that you’d buy at the store (or have installed by a cabinetry company), the inside box of the cabinet were left alone.

Oh, and let’s talk about hardware. If you want to take your plain cabinetry up 327 notches, add hardware. Please, oh please add hardware!! The pops of metal add SO MUCH to the look of your cabinetry…..and yeah, they also help open your drawers and doors too! ;) So for $2-3 for very basic knobs, please don’t skip the hardware!

We also changed out the light fixtures above both sets of cabinetry, which made a huge difference.

Oh, and one of my very favorite transformations that we’ve done throughout the whole house, is trimming the windows and doors (<