Is there a DIY repair option for my water-damaged kitchen cabinets?

Q: The cabinets under my kitchen sink are showing water damage. Short of refinishing, is there a way to repair them?

A: Yes, there is a way to make the doors look far better even without refinishing them, but you can’t just dab on stain that matches the color. Almost inevitably, the color would wind up too dark.

The doors, like many on cabinets these days, weren’t colored with a stain that soaked into the wood fibers. Instead, it’s more akin to what’s on M&M candies, with wood standing in for the chocolate center surrounded by a colored shell, said Erick Osman, who with his brother, Mitchell, runs Furniture Medic by Karen, in Leesburg, Virginia. The company, which was started in 1998 by their parents, Karen and Brad, makes house calls to touch up cabinet and furniture finishes throughout the Washington area.

Different pieces of wood, even from trees of the same species, naturally have significant color variations. Traditional cabinetmakers spent a lot of time choosing where to use specific boards so they wouldn’t wind up with a mishmash look. To simplify that task and create cabinets with more uniform color, manufacturers of cabinets like yours confine the color layers and the finish to a shell that surrounds the wood. They seal the wood, top that with a base color, add a darker glaze, rub off most of the glaze and then top the color with a clear finish. Some of the glaze remains in crevices, which accentuates details.

Water can damage finishes in a few ways. On tables and other flat surfaces, when white marks appear, it’s usually because moisture has penetrated the finish, leaving it crazed with fine cracks that appear white. Driving out the moisture, perhaps with heat, can sometimes erase those marks. But on your cabinets, you’re not seeing white marks, Osman said. You’re seeing the natural color of the wood where the finish came loose because water seeped in. The wood is probably maple, though it’s impossible to say from pictures alone.

Furniture Medic by Karen uses a few approaches to touch up furniture and cabinet finishes, which they always do on-site, often for restaurants and hotels, but also for homeowners. The minimum fee is around $325, although it varies if a customer is very close or very far away. The minimum fee is usually plenty to cover fixing doors on a single cabinet. If a kitchen needs a lot of touch-ups, a whole-kitchen refresh usually comes to around $1,200.

But a handy homeowner willing to invest around $70 in materials should be able to make the kind of fixes you need, Osman said. He shared the steps for a process he uses that is suitable for DIY repairs.

The first step: Clean the doors, wipe off the residue, and let the wood dry. Osman usually uses a little Dawn dishwashing soap in hot water, but if a cabinet is especially dirty, he might use a stronger grease-cutting detergent.

Next, scuff the areas where the finish is gone, using a 220-grit sandpaper or sanding pad. Remove all loose finish, back to where it still adheres. Slightly round over any sharp edges of the remaining finish. Vacuum or brush off the dust. Be careful not to sand a bigger area than you need to; touch-ups blend in best if they are as tiny as possible.

Then mix a tint coat that will double as finish. It isn’t possible to replicate the factory finish at home, but blending tint with finish comes close to giving a good visual match, Osman said. He often uses General Finishes Water-Based Wood Stain mixed with General Finishes High Performance Topcoat, typically in a ratio of 1 part stain to 10 parts topcoat. He says any brand of water-based stain can be mixed with any brand of water-based, clear finish. Antique Oak might be the right stain color for your doors, Osman said. But for the best match, take a door to a store that carries the stains and ask for help selecting the color. You might want to mix a couple of colors for a custom tone.

You can test the color on a small piece of maple. Don’t waste your time testing on other kinds of wood because the results won’t be accurate. But the real test is what happens on your doors. Start with the damage at the bottom and perfect your technique there, where it will be less visible. Osman typically uses a No. 2 round artist brush to dab on the mixture. Touch up just the area you sanded. Don’t try to feather out edges over a wider area, as you would with paint. You probably won’t be able to match the sheen, so keeping the repair as small as possible makes sense.

Water-based finishes, including ones called stains, aren’t absorbed into wood like oil-based products. In some contexts, that’s seen as a disadvantage. But for touching up a cabinet door, it’s an advantage. If you paint on the mixture and it looks too dark or too light, just wipe it away. Mix up another tiny batch and do it over.

A variety of clear finishes are used on kitchen cabinets, some of which readily bond with later topcoats. Osmond said that for small touch-ups, he’s never had a problem with the new finish peeling off. It would be different if you were trying to refinish large areas or even entire doors. That’s where a pro’s help might be essential.

If possible, before embarking on a touch-up project, check with the cabinet manufacturer for specifics on the finish and the color or colors. The company might even offer a color-matched touch-up kit. Manufacturers often stamp their name on drawer sides or an inside surface. Members of the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association often use a label with the association logo and a code, which you can decipher by going to the association’s “who made my cabinets” webpage. In your case, though, it seems that the cabinet manufacturer is no longer in business. A person answering the phone at the company that now uses the name says it is new and has nothing to do with the one that made your cabinets.