Yellowing white paint?

I need some advice. Yesterday I finished reassembling in my new bedroom a set of old but good wardrobes I had brought with me. Because they are now in a different order and conformation than they were before, it is very obvious where the sun has caught some of them, so they look a mix of white and yellowish cream. As the doors are wood and finished to show the grain, I do not want to simply paint them over. Does anyone know if there is anything that will restore faded white paint? I am going to mix up some detergent and bleach, but if anyone has any experience I would be glad to hear it.

ummmm........... well when I asked DH, his answer was...........some fresh white paint
We had some old doors in a farmhouse that had been painted with about 10 coats of paint over the years. They were yellow, the only thing we did was take them to a specialist that dips them to strip all the paint off. I was going to repaint but loved the natural finish so much I just varnished them

Maybe there is some product on the market now that will help ?

I was thinking that you probably need to strip off the old finish, sand them down then put a sealing coat on them to retain the wood grain. The sun has actually discolored the wood and the only way to return it to a consistent color is to get deep enough into the wood (by sanding) to get a consistent color.

It's a lot of work. Personally, I would either leave it and call it "antiqued with a lot of charm", or paint over it.

Jenny can you get Sugarsoap in France? It usually makes a good job of paintwork.
http://www.screwfix.com/search.do?fh...tkw=Sugar+Soap

I actually posed a similar type of question about some painted trim in my house. The paint store (its one of the best in the area for advice) said that paint does fade over time. For instance you can have painted something a couple of years ago and want to touch up using the same paint from the orginal container. The paint will not match. In my case they recommended I bring in a piece of my wood trim and the orginal paint so they can get th ebest match possible. I do have to repaint then (a big task).
So to get it to match you will have to repaint. If the doors I guessing are stained?? They probably need a good wood cleaner and polih to restore finish.

We had this happen to us before, and we just sanded the old paint off, I also like the wood grain so I just put a sealer on it.

I might redo the wall unit though in my LSU room, I might paint it white. I gotta wait until I want to do something though, right now I just don't feel like it.

I don't think simply cleaning them will have much effect. The paint itself has aged and changed due to the sunlight. If you want to keep the wood grain you'll have to sand/strip the old paint off and restain.
I'd recommend refinishing in the newer water based urethanes. They don't yellow like the old oil based paints & varnishes do. Everything will fade in time and strong sunlight though, but latex will hold out longer.

I spent all day today cleaning them, with sugarsoap (thanks Anne, yes, I had some) and I will see how they look in daylight tomorrow. Thanks for all your thoughts.

Just wondering what they look like today? If the sugar soap helped? At least if you have to re-paint then you will have a nice clean surface to start on.

Thanks everyone. I cleaned them first to get the dust of storage off them and then tried a product someone here gave me. It is a spray bathroom cleaner with bleach in it, mildly abrasive, and it seemed to lift a lot of the yellow off. Once they have been in the sun here for a month or two I think they will look fine. I am almost able to sleep in my own bedroom!

That will be nice!!! The house is slowly coming together!

Glad it worked!