we painted the kitchen cabinets in our rental property white but hubby bought the wrong paint. Instead of enamel or gloss he bought semi or eggshell (not sure which), any how, after painting the paneling cream and the backsplash is a creamy color too, the floor is off white with beige, brown and grayish tones to it and the new counter top is black with brownish-tan and white specks in it-----the stark white cabinets are toooo white. I have some solid color stains left over from repainting the bathroom cabinets in a light gray and a light tan. I experimented with blending the two colors on a cabinet door(watered the stain down and dry brushed the colors on) I think i like the results but would like to know if I can add polyurethane, varnish, glaze or something to the stains to get a sealant and gloss to the finish or if this needs to be done separtely. I was thinking of putting the stain on with a brush and blending it with a rag to soften the look like colorwashing. Any thoughts on this????
We used exterior stain on the bathroom cabinets to protect them from the moisture in the bathroom as our previous renters didn't seem to know how to use the exhaust fan which created some problems to all the woodwork in the bathroom. They actually turned out pretty great.

 

You want to put stain over latex paint?

 

I know that some people use stain for a glazing medium over latex. However, depending on the type of latex on the cabinets and the type of stain you may not have sufficient time to work with the stain before it dries to achieve a rubbed/glazed effect. Particularly since this is in the kitchen and subject to lots of wear, you should put a sealer over the glaze, for instance, poly. You may also want to try using a glazing medium with latex paint to achieve the same effect with more time to manipulate the glaze.