We moved into this cute 50's brick ranch last year and unfortunately there are these very well-crafted, but UGLY kitchen cabinets (see the top three pics here:http://puddlemedia.com/kitchen.html)

We can't really budget replacing them and they are so solid it seems like it would be wasteful. They're Oak ply with lots of woodgrain, an unfortunate dark stain (most of our decor is mid-century modern light birch or light maple).

Do you think I should try to strip them as light as possible (and sand), paint them or fork out the $5k to have them refaced?