Starting with orange oak the only way to get gray and not mud is to paint them.
Gray gel stain oak cabinets.
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.
My first 1 2 pint of gel stain was 14 48 with shipping.
Stain the cabinet fronts by applying gel stain on a sponge brush with light and even strokes to avoid getting stain on the insides.
Wipe off the gel stain going with the grain using a clean dry cotton cloth or high quality paper towels.
The color soaked in well so i only needed 2 coats.
Let the first coat dry and apply one or two more coats as needed.
To get what you want you have to start with a.
The quart of poly cost 28 50 with shipping the rough cost to refinish the cabinets with gel stain was.
Between coats give your project a chance to dry.
However my bright kitchen will not see gel stain.
Gray over orange is just ugly mud colored.
Normally drying time ranges from 6 to 12 hours.
May 28 2016 restyle junkie of phoenix az gives us a great visual of gf s gray gel stain.
However there is no way i would attempt using gel stain on my kitchen cabinets as others have.
In the darker rooms like the bathrooms in our house this worked out fine.
Maybe it was my oak cabinets but i have never had so much trouble getting something to look even.
This is only one coat over a honey oak graham cracker cabinet.
Restyle junkie says ever wonder what general finishes gray gel stain looks like.
It needs another coat but it s already pretty.