First the sanding. This takes FOREVER! I've already gone through one Black & Decker Mouse Sander and had to return it to Lowes. Luckily the second one has held up a lot longer. It takes me several hours to sand a cabinet door and frame.
Then the staining. I used Olympic Azure Blue for the laundry room cabinets. I put 2 coats on, with 15 min of soak time each. After each coat you have to wipe the excess stain off with a cloth.
Here's the before and after. The original amber finish of the cabinets is on the right, and my newly re-finished cabinet door on the left. The green stain will go together much better with our green tile.
And here's the finished base cabinet for the laundry room sink. The tiles at the bottom will be removed and replaced with a new kick-board. After the staining I covered each surface with 3 coats of clear finish, with sanding with 220 grit sandpaper in between each coat. Each coat takes 2 hours to dry, so clear coating this cabinet took about 2 days.
I also stained the crown moulding for the office in a similar fashion. The crown moulding is pine, and I used Olympic Slate Blue as the stain. The strips were pre-treated with wood conditioner before staining.
And here's the final product:
