are you wanting wood cabinets or painted, if painted just give a lite sand and paint, if you want the wood look strip them and then sand them and stain, a lot of work to get that to work, also keep in mind different wood will look different with the stain on them you can leave the bottom wood and just paint the top cabinets. a nice look if you like country or primitive is to paint the cabinets a solid color then to sand them a little use for example brown then paint the door brown let it dry use crackle finish then use off white and go over it you can distress the bottom cabinets and stain them if you need samples of this look just let me know I will send pictures it is really nice with any counter top or you can have open storage on the top but I would only do that in a few cabinets like over the sink

paint them, strip them, cover them in fablon, tin, fabric.

you can either paint them or have them resurfaced. you can find people who do cabinet resurfacing in the yellow pages or check at your local home depot or lowes, if you have one.