Dear Reena: We’ve painted our 1970s oak kitchen cabinets a bright white. The handles were in the middle, they were removed and the holes plugged, and wood putty applied and sanded to a smooth finish.

What you see may not be real. It may just look that way. You can touch the glossy interior doors at Riddick’s Folly in Suffolk and believe they are richly grained mahogany. In reality, they are ...