Am I out of my mind? Thinking of a DIY strip, sand, stain

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Am I grossly underestimating how much I'm going to hate my life if I start this project?

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When it comes to home projects, yes is the correct answer 90% of the time. Just embrace that it will take twice as long as you think and there will be 3 times more cursing than is necessary. But if you're going to do it, do it now before you get settled in to your home. Same with painting. Otherwise it'll be years before it gets done

Godspeed

Did you use Citristrip? That seems to be the product of choice in all the guides I've been reading

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How old is your house? Are you 100% sure that it's wood underneath and not MDF or some cheap plywood?

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Anything built in the last 20-30 years, there's a high chance cabinets are MDF. At least the boxes, the doors and drawer fronts might be real wood.

My wife paints kitchens and bathrooms as a side hustle, and only in older homes is there real wood. Some newer upscale homes have wood in the kitchens, but she ran into wood kitchen cabinets and MDF bath cabinets in the same house.

Keep in mind this is this is one dude's opinion....and I hate tedious type work like this with a passion-

But I wouldn't even consider stripping paint from almost anything to get it back to the bare wood, especially if there is any trim detail. I'd just find a better color and repaint. I did that one time several years ago with all of my kitchen cabinets and I still wake up in cold sweats thinking about it.

I think you'd end up hating your life for sure. That sounds miserable. Think of all the corners and details and small little areas that will be a bitch to get into to get the paint/stripper out. I'd either repaint, or rebuild it, but that's me and I despise that type of work. Would much rather build something from the ground up, that way you can customize it to fit your needs.

How do you even know the wood underneath is of high enough quality to be worthy of all this work? It’d have to be some pretty special stuff for me to do all this work.

There's usually a reason wood furniture and fixtures are painted in the first place, and with that in mind proceed cautiously.

I've built a lot of cabinets and would never think of painting quality wood, so be prepared for pine at best and MDF or some other composite on the other end of the spectrum.

If determined to strip it, be sure to buy some stiff nylon brushes and there are scraper kits you can buy that have several different profiles that are interchangeable on a common handle. These will help greatly in getting into tiny places and seams to remove any paint.

Good luck.

What color stain? You say natural, so do you mean pretty light? If you meant a dark gray, brown, etc. I think it would be more reasonable to do. A light stay where you will see more is going to be much harder. No reason you can’t prime and repaint it as said.

The first thing is you need to figure out what all wood you have. As said it’s very possible they use multiple types of materials. I’d check it all and then do one piece that’s hidden and see how it turns out.

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If I strip it down and it's bad I can always prime and paint back over it, right?

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If that winds up being the case, there's no need to completely stirp it down unless the paint is severely cracked and peeling.

A simple hit with 100 grit paper to rough up the surface will suffice if you can smooth out any defects in the paint. Just make sure to wipe everything down real well to remove any dust you make before painting.

The biggest issue with repainting is what type paint they used and how they prepped it to paint. I've come across woodwork painted with latex interior trim paint and they applied it over oil base paint, but didn't sand the oil base trim before applying paint.

A lot of times the latex will simply roll off in large pieces when trying to sand it to put on new paint and that is a PITA to deal with.

Truth is, a lot of DIY folks really don't have a clue as to what they are doing and when they realize they're in over their heads, they usually do more harm than good.

ETA: Also, if you do strip it down to wood, be sure to wipe it all down with what the manufacturer suggests to neutralize the stripper.

I generally use Strip-Eze and when I have all the paint off I'll wipe the surfaces down with warm water and a clean rag and do this a couple times. Then let the wood surface dry completely and then sand it with 220 since wiping it all down with a wet rag will raise the grain on the wood.

Then you can get all the dust off and apply your stain or go right to your finish product if just clear coating over natural wood.