I saw this thing on Pinterest.... change your cabinets from that orangey honey oak color to espresso. Oh yea. I clicked through to the link, read it and started scheming. Here was the answer to my ugly kitchen and all my free mismatched furniture. It looked very easy and pretty cheap. There was a nice, well written, clear as day tutorial on the website.
Here is the picture I saw and the link to the blog.
In our kitchen we have pine cabinets that are original to the home. They ugly. They old. But a new kitchen is down the list on things to spend money on. We need a roof first. Then maybe I can think about a kitchen. But I can't take this kitchen any more. It is dingy and orange and ugly and blah. Something has to be done. This method using the Gel Stain would let me keep our old cabinets and just update them from that orange pine color to a dark wood. My hubby doesn't want me to paint the cabinets. So the stain would pass his ok, as you still can sorta see the wood.
I didn't want to attack the whole kitchen without trying it out on something first. So I thought I would try the coffee table. Here it is:
Except for the color, it is an awesome coffee table. It was free, given to us many years ago from a co-worker who was moving. It is sturdy as hell therefore can stand up to lots of family daily use and abuse. It has three large baskets that go in it that are wonderful for storing embroidery projects and crayons and such. It is a great table it is just that orange honey pine color that I don't like. The rest of the wood in the den is dark and this sticks out as as freebie.
I made a plan. Monica says to apply a layer, wait 12 hrs, apply a layer, wait 24 hrs, apply last layer wait 5 days. Then apply topcoat.
Here is my plan:
Day 1 clean, sand, first layer
Day 2 apply second layer
Day 3 apply third layer
Day 4,5,6,7,8 try not to touch them as they dry. This will be the hardest part. Just waiting.
Day 9 apply top coat
Day 10 apply topcoat
Day 11 apply topcoat, just on the table top for extra durability. I think the chair and barstool will be fine with 2 coats.
Day 12,13 let them sit and dry.
This project will take 13 days start to finish The can of stain and top coat were $29. 13 days and $29 for new furniture that doesn't look like furniture we got because someone was moving? Awesome.
I followed the tutorial exactly. I found the General Finishes Gel Stain at Woodcraft in Norfolk. I cleaned the table with a super hot kitchen scrubbie and wood soap to get our life off the top. Snacks, glue, some paint, marker, hummus... I lightly sanded, wiped then sanded again, wiped. I found a sock of Joey's that had a hole in it. I got rubber gloves on to protect my hands. I turned up Lily Allan waaaaaay loud!
Day 1 First coat
Here is the stain in the can. It looks like dark chocolate pudding. It really looks yummy. It doesn't smell bad. One a scale of 1 to 10, 1 having no smell and 10 being oil based primer smell- it is a 3.
Here is the can and example of the color stain on bare wood on their website.
I dipped my sock hand in the stain and started applying. I tried to wipe it on in the direction of the grain.
Here is the table with some of the fist layer on. At this point, I freaked out liking it so much. My husband called and I was just babbling about how much I loved it already. Which is a good sign on any project- when you love it and it isn't even finished yet, it is going to be awesome!!!
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| Hey! There is a hand in that sock! |
After putting one coat on the coffee table I looked around the house for other things to apply stain to! This was just too easy and too fun!
I chose this rocking chair. It is old and blah too. It could use some sprucing up. It was also free, given to me by my uncle when I was pregnant with E.
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( Come back, Joanna and bring your sweet kids with ya!! ) I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was your basic light wood.
Here are all three with the first coat of stain on. Monica on the blog says it will be streaky and ugly and odd. Don't freak out, she says - go have tequila. Yes, my table is streaky. But I didnt freak out. I don't have any tequila in the house but I do have wine so I had some wine. Yum.
About the gel stain: This is technically a wood stain but using this way it is more like thin paint. This is really painting the stain on with a sock. You rub on a super thin layer with the sock and leave it and don't wipe it off. It dries very thinly, almost see through. The next layer the same.
With this experiment, I had three different wood finishes I was covering up. The bar stool was very slick and shiny- still had tons of clear finish on it. The coffee table was beat all to hell. Knicks and gashes galore. The rocking chair was just old. Dry and old. The stain went on all three the same, very smooth and very easy.
The cleaning ,sanding and staining only took 1 1/2 hours.
Day one down- 12 more to go! :)
I am excited to stain again tomorrow!!!
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