Gel stain will not require you to sand the product to a raw wood finish.
Gel stain to darken cabinets.
You may be wondering how to use gel stain on your cabinets like i did and become overwhelmed by all the tutorials out there.
Apply the stain with a brush.
Gel stain is particularly forgiving with splotch prone woods like birch cherry maple and pine.
The gel stain is thick like pudding not a liquid.
While gel stain does go on thick and sit on the surface of the wood i found that you can still see and feel the natural wood grain beneath unlike paint.
I used about half a quart of varathane gel stain by rustoleum in the color dark walnut.
Tip make sure to label the location of each door or drawer so you don t forget where it came from later.
If you ve decided to darken your cabinets lets go over the steps i suggest you follow.
Remove all the knobs and take apart any removable parts of the cabinets.
Updating cabinets with gel stain step 1 clean the cabinets.
With the oak cabinets the grain was very evident post staining.
In my case it was one door and three drawers.
Unlike other traditional stain gel stain sits on top of the wood rather than penetrating it hiding the previous stain color as well as some of the wood grain.