General Finishes Java Gel Stain

After the garage floor was finished I really wanted the next project to be the kitchen cabinets before we moved kitchen stuff inside. Almost everything in the house was very builder-basic and the cabinets were that weird orange-brown color everyone seems to equally dislike. It wasn't horrible, it was just...orange, and they were clashing with my theme. We're going for this "rustacoastrial" look and in my rustacoastrial kitchen the cabinets were going to be dark- java dark to be exact.

My friend in pharmacy school bought a house six months before me and posted a before and after picture of her DIY kitchen. It was so impressive I instantly texted her to know what medium she used to stain the cabinets. All I had ever used previously was that runny stain you can get at any home-store and while it works great for other projects, I knew it was a nightmare to use on kitchen cabinets. She told me to buy "General Finishes Java Gel Stain," and warned me that "it was messy but that I would love the results and want to gel everything I owned in it."

I bought the gel stain online (because it's unavailable everywhere you would think would carry it) and happily took down and numbered my 26 (yes, 26) cabinet doors. This is the easy part. I realize at about cabinet 14 there is no way I can lay the cabinets on the floor all at the same time so I put them in the garage and focus on the wood on the cabinet bases first.  I sand and clean the bases, tape the walls, counter tops, appliances, and floors, and pop open my gel stain. Instant love-it's awesomely dark.  I assumed that foam brushes were the way to go and I dove in.  It took me 2 and a half hours to get the first coat on by myself. I was exhausted, and it was indeed stupid messy. Not accepting defeat I closed everything up and go upstairs to find Tim has taken every wire shelf out of the master and guest room closets. 

Tim felt the second project on the list was to blow out the wall between the master and guest closet enlarging the master closet, and making the old guest closet door a wall. Since gel stain takes hours (sometimes days) to dry I had no problem with trying to do two projects at once. 

To avoid making this entry overly long I'll just get to the most important points:

• Take the kick plates off before you start (the piece of wood that runs along the floor). See picture, you'll understand. No, the orange pieces are not intentional, kickplates are flimsy, break, and then expensive to replace. :I
• Use gloves, then put a sock over your hand and dip your hand in the gel stain. After learning this little gem the labor went from 2+hours to 40 minutes per coat.
• It takes 4 good coats to see good results.
• If you have a dog, especially one like Laika, just get ready for a good dose of frustration. Dog hair will inevitably get all over your cabinets while they are drying, and then you will curse like a sailor as you try to lightly sand the stain you meticulously applied in every crevasse of every cabinet.
• Blue Dawn+ (unused)floor scrub brush+your shower = only way to take gel stain off. 
• General Finishes make a rub on polyurethane. Buy it. It's wonderful and you can still apply it with your new favorite tool- the sock.

I also needed hardware for my cabinet doors. I went with 5" stainless steel bar pulls and bought them on eBay. Don't buy them at a store, you'll waste your money. Tim made the template, and I'm happy with my kitchen. Got lots more to do, but it's a huge start.

It only gets better.

Mandy