What do we think about gel stain on kitchen cabinets?

4,359 Views | 9 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by 91AggieLawyer
Claude!
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So I've got the lovely builder-grade "honey oak" cabinets in my kitchen. It doesn't really make financial sense for me to rip out the cabinets and put something higher end back in. That leaves me with painting or staining the cabinets to make an upgrade. Painting I can wrap my little brain around pretty easily, but I don't really have a lot of experience with gel staining cabinets. I've read a lot of glowing blog posts about how it's the greatest thing ever, and the pictures posted look pretty nice, but that just makes me suspicious.

Any of y'all have experience with applying gel stain to cabinets? Pros and cons?
Absolute
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AG
Wife decided that we need to redo our golden (orange) oak cabinets this year. We tried multiple colors and brands that she had found online. From my experience it would work if you wanted to go really dark. In the end after trying 4 or 5 colors we punted and ended up painting the cabinets with chalk paint (again multiple color experiments with expensive crap.)

The end product /result turned out pretty nice and wasn't hard to do.
G. hirsutum Ag
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AG
My wife did it and it turned out great. Held up for 3 years. We need to do some touch ups but all in all it was worth the effort.
dubi
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AG
Seven said:

My wife did it and it turned out great. Held up for 3 years. We need to do some touch ups but all in all it was worth the effort.


Pics?
GtownRAB
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AG
Going darker can work. You need to lightly sand the door, then the gel stain will stick. Then put a protective clear coat over the top.

The problem is it is not difficult then regular staining. Using a gel stain like that is more art and technique. Some people can make it look great, some people make it look like a DIY project gone wrong.

If you can get a similar scrap door to practice on, that would be ideal. Or get one of yours and practice on it until you get a look you like. You can wipe the gel stain of with solvent and keep trying on the same practice door.
Absolute
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AG
GtownRAB said:

Going darker can work. You need to lightly sand the door, then the gel stain will stick. Then put a protective clear coat over the top.

The problem is it is not difficult then regular staining. Using a gel stain like that is more art and technique. Some people can make it look great, some people make it look like a DIY project gone wrong.

If you can get a similar scrap door to practice on, that would be ideal. Or get one of yours and practice on it until you get a look you like. You can wipe the gel stain of with solvent and keep trying on the same practice door.
We used the inside of some of the less used cabinet doors.

Would definitely agree the gel was harder to use than I expected. I never really liked the way it looked. I fear it would have turned out poorly if we had tried it on all of the cabinets.

The chalk paint we ended up with turned out really good though.
aezmvp
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Absolute said:

GtownRAB said:

Going darker can work. You need to lightly sand the door, then the gel stain will stick. Then put a protective clear coat over the top.

The problem is it is not difficult then regular staining. Using a gel stain like that is more art and technique. Some people can make it look great, some people make it look like a DIY project gone wrong.

If you can get a similar scrap door to practice on, that would be ideal. Or get one of yours and practice on it until you get a look you like. You can wipe the gel stain of with solvent and keep trying on the same practice door.
We used the inside of some of the less used cabinet doors.

Would definitely agree the gel was harder to use than I expected. I never really liked the way it looked. I fear it would have turned out poorly if we had tried it on all of the cabinets.

The chalk paint we ended up with turned out really good though.
Thinking about redoing my kitchen cabinets. Do you have any pictures?
Absolute
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AG
I will take some this weekend
aezmvp
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Absolute said:

I will take some this weekend
mforce
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AG
I highly recommend General Finishes brand gel stain. Never had much luck with the other brands I found at lowes or Home Depot.
91AggieLawyer
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AG
We used gel stain for unfinished red oak planks we had milled for shelving. Turned out great. Then, we turned around and tried to use it for a bookcase we bought at the unfinished furniture store. Not so great. In fact, the bookcase looks like it was painted brown more than it looks stained. Much of the bookcase is hardwood plywood -- not true hardwood, which I didn't realize until after we had stained it.

I'm afraid the cabinets would look more like my bookcase and you wouldn't be happy with the result. Not sure that's a gel stain issue -- just a stain issue. If you're going to do this, I suggest taking a cabinet door off, prepping it REAL well -- degrease, stripper, sanding like crazy, and cleaning off the residue -- and trying the stain in a small area. See if that works to your satisfaction and then do the rest as needed.
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