If you aren't fussy and only want a different color and don't want to spend a fortune, there are 2 ways to go. Yes, you will need to remove all cabinet doors and hinges. Once done, get denatured alcohol, doctors masks and fans. Wipe the cabinets and doors with denatured alcohol with windows open and fans a going. Safety goggles wouldn't hurt either and rubber gloves. It is overkill but safety is important. The alcohol will "kill" the gloss and give the finish "tooth". Now you can buy Minwax polyshades and paint it on or find a cocao brown paint that you like, semigloss would be good. I don't know how well the polyshades will work but you can try it on the inside of one of the doors to see. The paint should be just fine just use thin coats so paint won't chip off later. Sanding is useless as the finish is IN THE WOOD and nothing other than professional dipping will work. How do you dip the cabinets themselves? I copped out and got a refacing company to come in and recover the cabinets and put on new doors. That is another option. If you are on limited budget, I would paint them. If you paint get a can of penetrol. It is for spray painting but works with brushwork also. It makes the paint FLOOOOW better so you get a thinner evener coat. I used it when I built a set of kitchen cabinets for myself. Comes out nicer than paint alone. Use a GOOD brush and GOOD paint. Yes, costly but nothing worse than cheap paints and brushes.
If there is a varnish on the existing honey oak cabinets, that will need to be stripped off, the new cocao brown will not penetrate the vanish. Choice: sand them down yourself, this is a LOT of work, OR look in the yellow pages under furniture re pair, hard to find, but some places will take "wood" with vanish, dip it in a big vat, which strips the varnish off, you "clean" them up a bit, time to re stain...check into buying new ones, in the long run maybe cheaper than going through all the work you will end up doing...IF you were going to leave the cabinets in place to sand, the hardware will get scratched, if exposed, the exposed hardware will not allow you to do a good sand job, being they are in the way.
this is a kitchen project and would like to know what is involved to do it.
