Can these kitchen cabinets be touched up?

joe12pack

I am helping my mom do a kitchen remodel and her kitchen cabinets are in good physical shape but obviously the water damage has left them looking bad. I can't tell if there's a stain or if this is the original wood color with poly on top of it. Can I get a wood stain and just go over real lightly to preserve most of the color but touch up the stained part?

slickshift

If they have poly on them, they will not accept a stain

It is unlikely that kitchen cabs were just stained, and not polyurethaned or shellacked or varnished in some way

Water damage is a difficult problem to address properly in the best situations
Trying to "touch-up" water damage is usually not possible...but ever so slight and specific water damage might possibly be "touched up"

W/o seeing your specific problem it's hard to tell, but I'd have to say the chances are pretty huge that a strip and refinish, or a paint job would be the solution

joe12pack

Ok I was afraid of that. So I'm a noob as far as strip and refinish. Would it be easier to do that (how?) or would I be better off buying new cabinets ($$$).