Any Advise for Tired Cabinets?
 

You might try staining the worn areas then clean them up with a furniture polish.

Ours in our 1955 cape are painted white. I was thinking of getting them back to natural wood. Wish we could swap! :-)

I'm with you i can't stand those builders grade oak cabinets.. They look so cheap. The only thing i used on them is a sledge hammer.

If i had to i would try a darker stain and if that doesnt look right then white paint.

A good idea would be to convert a set of doors into glass doors Then use the old door to test on.

Thanks to all for your input! I like the idea of trying a darker stain, I'm just afraid of messing it up and ending up worse off than I started:( I'll put a picture on of whatever I end up doing...

Thats why i suggested a test area or door created by the glass doors. just a thought

It is not clear from the photo, but I assume your concern is the worn areas. I have fixed cabinets similar to this by finding a stain close to the original color and just staining the worn areas. Then cover it with something to protect the new stain.

They are real wood, or at least the doors are.

You can't stain over varnish. A better way to go would be as follows:

Any areas where the varnish has worn through, sand with 120 grit sandpaper to get it clean. Then stain those spots with... (looks like Golden Oak or Honey Maple) whatever closely matches. Then touch up the varnish with Minwax fast drying semigloss or satin varnish. You may have to touch up the varnish a second time to get the shine right. Or you could lightly sand the entire surfaces and give it a whole new fresh coat of varnish. If you don't clean and sand the surfaces first, the varnish will flake off later, so don't skip that step.

If you want them darker, you could use a tinted varnish, also known as stain/varnish in one. Minwax is a good brand for this.

Darker Stain...
 

Some Thoughts
 

That is right, you cant stain over varnish...not sure exactly what your goal is but you could do allot following Tool Guy's advice on the face frames & skins, and just replace the doors with new ones w/new hardware of course, also look at replacing whatever trim you have in the way of moulding.

However...it isnt all that unlikely that you will discover that the pains of refacing your old cabinets along with the time and energy involved as well as the expense is about equal to just replacing them altogether, which of course would allow you the option of customizing your look and optimizing your storage space as well.

Good Luck.