Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Yes a polyurethane or spar varnish will give you a long lasting more shiny look, depending on the finish [satin or high gloss]. Spar varnish would be my choice. The bad news is the residual/traces of Lemon Pledge and Murphy's Oil soap must be COMPLETELY removed. I'd wash everything down with Prep-All, Wil-Bond, Simple Green, Purple Power, or the like. The first two are the best, and the most toxic. Then lightly sand it and clean the surface again. Once dry have at it.
Polyurethane and spar varnish will give it a bit more of an amber cast. I'm not a fan of the water-born polys.
This. I am refinishing my cabinets in my kitchen. I've done the top and and i need to find time to do the bottom. You MUST remove all of the polish, wax etc. Some furniture polishes have silicone and that makes fisheyes in about any finish. I used simple green spray and a cleaned them. The second time i cleaned them with a 3m ultrafine pad with the simple green. Wipe down after with a cotton cloth. I then wiped down the wood with a cloth and mineral spirits. Since my cabinets were a dark cherry stained maple. I went over them with a light rubbing of red mahogany stain, this stained any areas that had worn through the existing finish. I let these cabinet doors dry for about 2 days.
Brushing poly on vertical surfaces is tough. Minwax does make a wipe-on poly that is basically thinned down poly. This works well to avoid drips. Since it is thin, you will need about 3-4 coats. The more coats you put on , even with satin, the more the finish moves to a semigloss finish. The wipe-on allows you to fix and bubbles or junk in the finish before adding another coat. I have tried the water born poly on a few stained window sills, and the water base( really its probably acrylic) just is not durable. It is clear though. The oil base poly is tougher , but will amber a it, especially in the sun. ( not a problem for my dark cabinets, but might be for light pine).
Now to the design portion, the pine may not really match your kitchen. Another option is paint. I really don't like painted cabinets, but it has its place.
One option for you , might be to do a worn though paint finish in color that matches your kitchen. Basically you add a dark layer , paint over that with a color you like, Let it cure a week, then carefully sand through with a really light pad, like the 3m ultrafine pad. Then wipe-on poly over that. I would buy a cheap piece of furniture to practice this on. Like i said, i'm not a huge fan, but might work well on pine cabinets.
There are several techniques for doing this , using beeswax etc. rather than sand through both coats of color accidentally. Personally , i'd dry brush some, or use ultrafine pads and cut through really slow. The beeswax will be tough to get off to poly over, so i'd avoid that technique if you plan to topcoat with poly.
Something like this;