Kitchen Cabinet Staining-advice?

We were in Home Depot just the other day and saw a kit for refinishing your cabinets (maybe the same one you mention at Lowes) but anyway these kits work perfectly fine if the directions are followed to the letter.
You dont mention if these cabinets have a stain on them already or are bare wood. If bare wood, ANY of the Minwax products are awesome. If they are already finished, look into the kits mentioned above.

I didn't stain my cabinets but repainted them last year. I think, as with painting, you need to strip any prior stain or paint that is already on the cabinets. I started to do it by myself with a stripper, but it was such a huge job that I hired my carpenter to take care of it all with a sander. $300 and worth every penny! It made a huge difference when putting on the new paint.

I also removed all the cabinet doors and painted those horizontally (on sawhorses), to avoid drips, which I think can be an issue with stain too.

If your cabinet hardware is outdated you may want to consider replacing that too while you're at it (knobs and hinges). I did that part myself after completing the painting. The kitchen looks so much better now.

I don't think I'm answering the question, but you ought to question one of the employees. In order to stain your wood, don't you have to remove the old varnish by sanding down the wood first? I did my kitchen cabinets over the summer. But, I was also planning to paint the wood antique white. I had to remove the varnish with a chemical and then used a spatula to peel it off, and use a brush for the in-between places. After several layers of varnish remover I sanded down all the cabinets with a Bosch electric sand thingamagig, I also had to do some corners with sand paper manually. It's work, it's not that it isn't difficult. It's time consuming. For me it was worth it. I got rid of the old dark look and saved money on new lighter, brighter kitchen. I would do it if it really meant changing the look of your kitchen. Just make sure you do it right or next year you'll have peeling varnish.
Good luck

I'm about to do my first staining job on my kitchen table. I have been doing ALOT of homework online regarding painting my chairs and staining table. One thing I saw was make sure that when staining, when you get to the step of wiping the stain with a towel, you wipe SLOW and GENTLE. Putting too much pressure will give you a more distressed/antique look. That is what I am actually going for for my table but not sure what you are going for. Anyway, good luck on your project...tell us how it goes.

Check out remodeling blogs...DIY blogs for home makeovers. So much great advice.

We stained our cabinets and it was super easy, although time consuming. We took the really easy way out - going darker will allow you to do that. We used a paint stripper to thoroughly wipe down all surfaces - to clean them off and break down the seal. We then took fine sandpaper and went over all surfaces just to remove the sheen and make sure they were smooth. We did not worry about removing color - our cabinets were oak colored. We used Varathane One-Step Stain & Polyurethane - Semi-Gloss in Traditional Cherry. I personally think Cherry is much richer and prettier than Walnut. And don't use gloss, it sounds like a good idea in the kitchen, but it shows all the fingerprints (a tip I got from a cabinet guy). We put two coats on and called it done. They came out beautifully. Now, of course, the color isn't exactly like the charts in the store show, because we were ADDING cherry to oak, which will skew the color. We knew that and we're happy. Everyone says they look lovely! We took the doors off to do them, much easier. And we also replaced the handles - got a great deal on eBay. If you want before and after pics, I could email you if you'd like.