Minwax Gel Stain

I have used gel stain over painted furniture, unfinished wood and on previously stained wood. The coverage is amazing. This is something that goes on like paint. You can use a brush or staining pad. I have used both. You can put it on and wipe off excess or add on to make it darker. I love the color variation on this one. It holds up without even using a top coat. I am amazed at the things you can use with the gel stain. Very durable over time and use, quality is amazing and smooth finish. If you never used this before you will notice it is thick. You don’t have to stir much. Sometimes I don’t stir because it’s thick and the color is already there. It’s user friendly. I would choose gel stain over any regular stain. Another great product from Minwax. I do a lot of work on furniture finishing with stain and paint for my paid hobby. I love it and like to try different things.

You can paint it on anything and it covers everything. I even painted over the wood filler and the totally uneven worn finish on the table. It looks great with minimal effort. It is super easy to be neat because it is so thick and a little goes a long way. You can still see the imperfections in the wood unless you sand them away but the improvement is amazing. I did one good coat with Mahogany stain with a touch up coat, and three coats of Minwax 63333 Clear Polycrylic Water-Based Protective Finish Satin. It looks great compared to the original but you can still see any wood imperfections if the light hits it right. I found the fumes to linger and be a bit strong (although maybe I made it on too thick) so I would recommend good ventilation for about a week until the fumes go away.

Gel stain is the way to go! It’s much easier to “control” than regular stain. This brand is reliable and well known. This color looked good. I wanted a black look, but I didn’t want to use paint. This worked out great on my deck! It dried fast and only needed one coat. Wear gloves because it is hard to get off your skin!

Years ago I use to sell Minwax products. Trusting the name Minwax was not a problem. Trusting my better judgement after reading many negative reviews, made me much more skeptical. However, I dove in and purchased the Gel Stain from Amazon. The walnut color wasn't even available locally. I had painted kitchen cabinets which I needed to strip first. Once that was completed, I began the framing after removing all the doors and drawers. I used a 1" wide foam brush for the cabinets framing. Once I went to the doors and drawers, I selected a 3" foam brush. This size brush just fit into the quart can of Gel. I started at each end moving the Gel toward the center. Reverse the process, starting at the other end , drawing the gel into the center to blend it together. The more quickly you move during this operation the better. You want to spread the stain out as quickly and evenly as possible. I never went back to remove any stain but allowed each piece I was working to dry about 27 hours before handling. The results were most satisfying. I can understand some of the negative comments concerning this product. There is a knack to applying and spreading it. I believe there is a tendency to try and create the perfect grain effect. There is no time for that as the product begins to set(not dry)rather quickly. Trying to rework an area after it is laid down will result in more problems than is needed. The contents went a long long way because after completing the project, I still have almost 3/4 of a quart unused. I didn't give this product 5 stars because of the rapid setup and little time to tweak your work.

I've seen a lot of tutorials on Pinterest for staining "ugly" oak cabinets using a "gel stain." Most of the tutorials were recommending using a "java" color. From my computer/monitor, I couldn't tell if I would love the color, or if it would be too dark. I like a rich brown wood, but I didn't want it to be almost black--which some pictures made it look. I decided to go with this hickory shade based on another reviewer who said the same (afraid to try Java), and who was happy w/this color. I will say, I've done 3 coats (takes about 2 days to dry in between coats) and it is finally the depth of color I wanted. This might be extra work, but I was scared the java would be too dark and too close to black. Some pics made it look almost like paint. This color is beautiful and gives it a nice brown color to your cabinets, getting darker with each application... but like a good stain, the grain of the wood still shows through (so it's not paint-like or opaque) and I found w/the grain of oak, it really made applying this stain practically fool proof. Some of my little mistakes of not wiping areas properly, look just like different parts of the oak grain. I decided to try it on my laundry room cabinets (figured if I messed up, no biggie... it's the laundry room not the kitchen) and figured if I loved it, I could try it in other rooms. Needless to say, I will by buying more and doing this on all my "ugly" oak cabinets, turning them into a dark and rich brown/hickory shade. **I will try to come back and post a picture/update if I can later on (don't have pics handy).**

After a good amount of research, I purchased this product in Aged Oak color to makeover my basic white garage doors and give them a faux wood-look. If you’ve never used or purchased gel stain before, don’t be alarmed when you first open it and see that it is very thick, basically a pudding consistency - it’s supposed to be like this. Also, don’t shake it! Gently mix it with a paint stirrer avoiding making any bubbles. Of course stain looks a lot darker in the can than it goes on, as well. I did not prime the garage doors, but instead just cleaned them really well by power washing them and then scrubbing them with TSP Cleaner. I let the doors sit overnight to ensure they were completely dry. The stain does dry to the touch relatively quickly once applied so I don’t recommend using it outside on a windy day or in direct sunlight. I was able to do both garage doors as pictured with about 2/3 of one can, which leaves extra for touch ups. If you’re looking for a darker or more even color look, you may want to either prime first or paint the doors with a light brown or yellow paint, depending on the color you’re going for. This would help give it a more even color consistency when painting on the stain. You could also just do a quick coat with a cloth instead of a brush for a lighter color and then do a quick second coat with a chip brush. I used a Wooster stain paint brush for the application, but for this project, if I were to do it again, I’d probably use a cheap chip brush to get more brush strokes over the pattern in the door, but I just used whatever I had on hand. In hindsight, I should’ve just taken the half hour to run out and get the brush I wanted to use. All in all, I’d definitely recommend. Based on how this worked for my garage doors, I have no doubt this would work for just about anything across the board.

One of the best, little known products out there. This is not just for wood. It is in wood colors for matching and gives that wood luck. It can be used for any composite or fake wood. My application twice now (the 1st time 5 years ago) is for a front door that gets a lot of California sun. I love my door because it has a leaded glass insert, but it is fiberglass made to look like wood. I needed something that would give the wood color, texture, and multiple colors and still cover the fading, key scratches and general wear. This is it. Gives a brand-new door look with just one coat. And it is gel so it DOES NOT DRIP! It is easy to cut around the door lock and glass, and in and out of contours of which my door has a lot. And it dries really fast so by the time you finish (a quick job with gel) you can go back an touch up the areas that need just a bit more. Easy and fast and a bunch of different colors that are true to packaging. I changed from Red Elm to Mahogany this year.

I used this to stain my boring builder grade honey oak colored kitchen cabinets. Initially I found it difficult to work with, but I had never used gel stain before so I just had to learn to work with it. I cleaned the cabinets with TSP, then applied two coats of this stain and finished with Minwax Poly-Acrylic Top Coat in Satin finish. The first coat of stain I began to wonder if I had made a humongous mistake, but by the time I got the second coat on, it filled in all the random spots and looked really good. The stain does scratch off easily, so I think using a top coat is very important. Now that mine are sealed with several layers of the poly-acrylic I haven't had any issues with the stain coming off. This stain is very dark, anything beyond 2 coats may look black. I've had several people say my cabinets are black from pictures, but it is clear in the home that they are just dark brown. I needed 2 of these containers for 2 coats on the outside/inside cabinet doors, the cabinet trim edges, and the cabinet kick plates as well as the cabinet sides. I discovered that while my doors were solid wood, the sides of the cabinet boxes were veneer, but with this stain you can't tell they aren't solid high end wood. This is a great product!

The product is ok, it sticks to paint surface. But it dont look like stain paint and give a glossy paint look. For me it was not what i was expecting it to be.

This stuff is amazing, it even covers all that flat pack laminate furniture. I've used this to co-ordinate furniture in my spare bedroom that was different shades of laminate, I used a primer first so it could grip the surface. You would think the furniture was originally a set. Wish I could find and buy this over the counter in fit stores here in the UK.

works a dream. No need to put on a second coat. Its a shame I can't get the same again and in the UK as well. Brilliant product.

Great product!

I redid the top of a dining table and a wooden block that I am going to use as a plinth for a bronze figure. They both look fantastic and it was easy to use. I would definitely use again.