Can I Gel Stain Laminate Cabinets

A laminate stain can be a gel or tinted polyurethane.

Can i gel stain laminate cabinets.

When using gel stain even though no uneven spots. Open up the laminate stain cans and check for instructions on how to stain the cabinets on the sides of the cans. Lightly sand the laminate with 150 grit sandpaper. Otherwise the laminate will just sit in a sticky layer on top of the laminate and be tacky each time you go to open the cabinet.

Your basic stock laminate cabinets with an orangish color to them. With gel stain you don t have this problem because the wood doesn t absorb the stain. You re going to be amazed at the difference a little java gel stain can accomplish. Fortunately for those with laminate cabinets gel stain works well on a variety of surfaces other than real wood allowing you to stain your cabinets without leaving them a streaky splotchy mess.

This is a more detailed video than my last one on how to gel stain your kitchen cabinets. Laminate is very smooth and shiny so you must sand or the paint and the gel stain won t stick. You can buy unfinished cabinets and stain them yourself or strip and refinish existing wood cabinetry. It will appear streaky.

The gel will cover up the wood grain that is in the plastic while the tinted polyurethane will allow the faux grain look to show through. You could choose to use minwax. In most cases you ll simply need to coat a paintbrush in laminate stain and apply the stain coating evenly to the surface of the cabinet itself. They weren t awful i did live with them for many years like this and was content until the idea of mixing it up came to the forefront.

Because it sits on top it masks the grain of the wood especially if you pick a dark color. Sorry that it s so long but i wanted to make sure i covered as mu. Beginning with the backside of the cabinet coat each cabinet lightly with the gel stain using an old cloth or foam brush. Apply gel stain i decided to stain the drawers and paint the body to match the.

Don t apply too thickly. Customers have reported the successful use of gel products over laminate surfaces. But if you have any doubts about your stripping and staining skills it s definitely worth hiring a pro.