I have a good quality solid beech wood 1970's kitchen but it's rather shabby now. I don't really want to splash out on a new kitchen and wonder if there is any way to re-furbish the doors. I'd like the wood a lot lighter, say maple colour. Is there a way I can do this?

Well you can sand down all the doors and re-lacquer them - if you just want to spruce them up.

Changing the colour of the wood is likely to be much more difficult, I suspect. You can bleach timber but with beech, that's only likely to give you a pale orange look (rather than the more yellowy look of maple) and I'm not sure it's something I'd want to do in the home.


Someone with more practical experience might come along with a reply. But ... if it was easy to make beech look like maple, then manufacturers would probably be doing it ... it's a cheaper timber!

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Majjie Advanced Kitchen Design

To be honest a DIY attempt to do this work will look it. The process of getting a high finish on wood doors is very complex and not easily attempted. I would suggest you are cheaper replacing the doors. Try here Kitchen doors replacement from Burbridge and kitchen storage