Thank you, Patty. Apply gel stain liberally and wipe off excess stain with a cloth or high quality paper towels. Would gel stain work in white or should I just keep with the Sherwin Williams white paint I have already purchased. For these doors, I used an general finishes gel stain application 10 pad and then a shop towel to get the look I liked. Apply Java Gel Stain. Hi Brianna!

Follow by wiping with a tack cloth or damp rag to remove fine dust. Mix the gel stain well with stir stick. It is best to wear gloves and an apron or old clothes as this product is difficult to remove from fabric.

Using a foam brush, apply a liberal amount of stain to the surface following the grain of the wood. Once the surface is covered, lightly wipe away excess product with a soft cloth, like a cheese cloth or high quality paper towels. You will see the original surface with this first application and you can choose to use the original colour to help create a grained effect.

In this example, we used two coats of stain and allowed a bit of the original cherry finish to come through.

General Finishes recommends hours of dry time between coats. A top coat is not necessary due to the high amount of urethane in the gel stain that will provide protection. As an option for maximum durability on high traffic pieces, you can use General Finishes Gel Topcoat or General Finishes water-based High Performance Top Coat , but you need to wait 72 hours before applying when changing from oil to water-based finishes.

Also note that General Finishes does not recommend the use of Gel Stain over laminates or high gloss surfaces. You can buy General Finishes Gel Stain, along with other essential furniture refinishing products in our store. Watch This Live In-Studio Demonstration Side Table Makeover When we finally got our hands on some, the wonderful, furniture-restyling ninja, Kerri documented her first experience with the highly anticipated product.

I sand the surface as if I was wiping down my kitchen counter. For instance, I tried Walnut and this Colonial Black and decided on the black.

I have a darker stain with the warm undertones showing through which reminds me of a Dark Walnut. Using a shop towel , applicator pad , chip brush , or lint-free rag, apply the gel stain working in manageable areas. For these doors, I used an applicator pad and then a shop towel to get the look I liked. Thin even layers give the best results. And if the first coat is not dark enough, you can always apply additional layers to darken the effect.

It really cut down on the yellow-orange stain and the grain is still showing through beautifully. Mineral spirits work well as a slip coat or you can mix in a little spirits in with the stain to slightly thin the gel stain. Gel Stains colors can be mixed together OR you can layer them. For instance, you can use a Walnut on your first coat.

Let dry. Use a Colonial Black on the second coat. This adds really nice depth to the stain. Mineral Spirits will help remove any mistakes on finished wood. For your hands and skin, you can use baby oil or ANY oil like vegetable oil or olive oil for your fingers and hands. Gel stains are topical. This is why they CAN be used to cover up an existing finish! I usually use a variety of tools to apply and remove my gel stains. This is totally up to you.

For these doors, I was really pleased with just one coat! However, if I were to want a darker opaque finish, I could have applied another one or two thin coats. The more coats, the darker and more opaque your finish will be. You can give it a VERY light sanding between coats with a finishing pad grit or higher. Do not sand the last coat before topcoat though. Depending on the temperature and humidity, gel stains can feel dry to the touch in hours but you should give them a proper 24 hours to dry between each coat.

For top coating, 72 hours is recommended. My french doors are hanging back up …somewhat hiding my staging room mess. Gel Stains are an amazing way to save time, money, and effort. And they are easy to apply. No drips. And YOU control how light or dark you want the finish. Thanks for reading. Great project! Can you talk more about the top coat process?

What type did you use? One coat, two coats? Etc thanks! Oh my word, Denise — those look fantastic!!!!! And I love what you did with them!!! What a clever idea. Love it. Thanks so much for the post!! It appears that your doors are more decorative rather than functional? Wondering if the same issue might happen with the gel stain. Hi Brianna! Yes, gel stains are VERY durable especially when top coated and sealed. Perfect for high traffic areas like doors and cabinets. Hope this helps. Denise Thank you for sharing.

I have used gel stain on a couple of tables, but not having good luck on my doors. We purchased a home with all trim and doors in honey oak. I am desperate to make this work. Hi Denise! Love all your helpful info on here. Decided to try and stain a piano bench, I cleaned it really good and then sanded and wiped down again.

GF advises extra care and prep when applying any finish over laminate surfaces because they are specifically designed not to mar and therefore they are not very "sand-able", making adherence difficult. In addition to this non-permeable surface factor, General Finishes Gel Stain is an oil-based product, and it is more difficult to obtain proper drying characteristics over a dense manufactured surface such as laminate. Gel stains, as all wood stains, were formulated to go over raw wood which has an "open" surface and can absorb some of the stain.

Customers have reported the successful use of Gel products over laminate surfaces. Here are two techniques:. NOTE: When using fine wood finishes, water and spills must be wiped up in a timely fashion. If this a high-use area near a sink, consider replacing the countertop instead. If this a low-use area such as a bedroom dresser that needs a tune-up, you will be fine. Then further test the finish by duplicating normal wear and tear: washing, scrubbing, scratching, etc.

General Finishes Gel Stain on knotty pine. To fix, sand the table lightly with grit sandpaper and restain the table. Apply as many coats of the mix as needed to obtain the desired color, allowing hour dry time between coats. Note: The stain may never adhere well to the knots because they are too dense to hold a stain. You can try dry brushing the knots with the stain to deepen the color and the protecting with topcoat.

You can add more mineral spirits, but test first. The mixture will thin out quickly. Yes, but it will evaporate much more quickly so you will need to re-wet the discharge pad more frequently.

Watch how to update existing finishes using a dry brush technique at this video here. Gel Topcoat is thick, while Arm-R-Seal is much thinner, and is easier to apply large projects. Find more information about Oil Based Gel Stains here.

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