Will Gel Stain Work On Laminate Furniture

Laminate is very smooth and shiny so you must sand or the paint and the gel stain won t stick.

Will gel stain work on laminate furniture.

Lightly sand the laminate with 150 grit sandpaper. While gel stain does go on thick and sit on the surface of the wood i found that you can still see and feel the natural wood grain beneath unlike paint. Open your can of gel stain. Before you do anything take a before pic.

Clean your project with a scotch brite pad and a 50 50 mix of denatured alcohol and water. With the oak cabinets the grain was very evident post staining. You could choose to use minwax polyshades to stain laminate or a similar brand. Prep work before using gel stain on furniture stop.

General finishes gel stain on knotty pine. To preserve the look of the wood grain on laminated furniture try using a tinted polyurethane stain. Apply first coat of stain to laminate furniture. This is where you want to proceed with caution.

Many ask if the gels can be used on laminate or plastic non wood surfaces. I love two tone mcm furniture. See below forgive the oil stained garage. If you need some ideas on what shade of stain click here.

Gel stains occasionally work on laminate as this type of stain doesn t need to penetrate the material as deeply as traditional stain but gel stain manufacturers typically advise against it. The gel stain is thick like pudding not a liquid. I decided to stain the drawers and paint the body to match the dresser in my room. Yes i said bedroom suite.

It was the furniture kept in my childhood bedroom since i was 12. If you are wanting to apply gel stain over a painted furniture piece you will use the same process as below for applying gel stain over stain. To improve adherence of the stain mix 2 parts gel stain with one part gel satin topcoat. If it looks like a gloopy mess that.

If it comes off easily then it s not sticking so don t use it. To fix sand the table lightly with 120 grit sandpaper and restain the table. Though how to paint and stain laminate was not one i considered. Yes it was perfect for a 12 year old girl s bedroom.

Simply dip the rag lightly into the stain mixture and then squeeze out any excess drips. Don t get overzealous and start soaking your laminate with the stain. Sanding down to raw wood would be the very best practice but the following is the most common prep it only takes a few minutes first. It does stick to some and not to others.

You want your cloth rag to be damp with stain but not wet. To test apply gel stain let dry for 48 hours and then try to scratch it off. Apply as many coats of the mix as needed to obtain the desired color allowing 24 hour dry time between coats. You can apply gel stain to mdf stained surfaces and most painted surfaces including milk paint chalk paint and latex paint.

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.