Of course, cabinet maintenance isn’t just about keeping your kitchen and bathrooms looking beautiful (though it’s pretty high up on my list). This one important step will also prevent your wood cabinets from splintering and losing their color.
I’m sure by this point you’re dying to know what one necessary thing should be done to keep your cabinets in tip-top-shape! It’s really simple – trust me. Our contractor told us that all wood cabinets need to be oiled on a semi-regular basis. I would have never thought of this … But, it’s amazing what a difference it makes!
Newer cabinets need to be oiled quite often – at least once every three months and most likely more. As they acclimate, older cabinets don’t need to be oiled as often; once a year should be sufficient. I didn’t do a great job of keeping up with our cabinets in the beginning. But after a while I noticed the color was fading a lot and they were just sort of dull looking. So I took it upon myself to purchase a small bottle of oil and a soft white rag, and rub down all of the cabinets. You can see below the difference between the oiled cabinets and the non-oiled wood.
Not only did the oil help clean the kitchen gunk off our cabinets, but it brought out a lot of richness in the dark color. This trick only works for stained wood cabinets – not painted or laminate ones, but if you’re ever looking at your kitchen thinking that it could use a bit of sprucing up, you might want to try grabbing a bottle of oil and some elbow grease! ;-)
Stacey says
Your cabinets are beautiful! Are you going to put in knobs and pulls? It really helps not to touch the cabinets so much if you can avoid it too. I learned that the hard way years ago.
Sam says
We were planning on it – but we actually ended up selling. These photos are old, I just figured the content was still great! We will be definitely doing it in our next house though!
Susan Copeland says
What kind of oil did you use?
Sam says
I just used Old English