Pine and birch were both splotchy and inconsistent.
Grey gel stain on oak cabinets.
My first 1 2 pint of gel stain was 14 48 with shipping.
Stripping to bare wood beyond hugely labor intensive will make the gray go over the raw pink nature of red oak so you get a pink gray more kin to the 80 s pink whitewash g technique than the current fad of gray stain.
Maybe it was my oak cabinets but i have never had so much trouble getting something to look even.
In the darker rooms like the bathrooms in our house this worked out fine.
I m happy to report that the gel stain went on the unfinished doors easily and matched all of the old doors almost perfectly.
Varathane weathered gray stain the color of the varathane weathered gray stain varied widely depending on the wood species.
Gray over orange is just ugly mud colored.
However there is no way i would attempt using gel stain on my kitchen cabinets as others have.
However my bright kitchen will not see gel stain.
Let the first coat dry and apply one or two more coats as needed.
Starting with orange oak the only way to get gray and not mud is to paint them.
Stain the front of the cabinet doors with light and even strokes to avoid clumping.
The quart that i bought to finish the project was 27 50 with shipping.
Remove cabinet doors drawers knobs and hinges stain the cabinet fronts by applying gel stain on a sponge brush with light and even strokes to avoid getting stain on the insides.