I took a detour into updating the living room and entryway that I hadn’t planned, and I even outright said I didn’t want to do it. But in the end I blame you all. I was fully prepared to paint the entryway console table, but I specifically said I didn’t want to refinish it. The whole thing is waxed. To refinish it with stain I had to strip it and repaint it. And that leads me to another problem. I built this thing out of cheap pine and I generally don’t like the look of stained pine. That’s why it’s waxed in the first place.
But then my idea of painting it was largely squashed by the comments suggesting leaving it with a natural wood finish. At first I was up for it, but the more I looked at it, the more I hated that splotchy orange finish.
And then I remembered that when I renovated the piano in our music room, the wood on that piano was no longer the same color after I took all the pieces off. But the stain I used on it, which was a wipe stain and not a penetrating stain, did a phenomenal job of giving the whole thing a cohesive color look. I couldn’t remember the name of the brand but knew I purchased it at my local Benjamin Moore store.
So on Friday afternoon I went to Benjamin Moore to see if they thought this stain would work on my previously waxed console table. And during the course of our conversation, the man who was helping me (and apparently had a lot of experience with coloring) recommended using a gel stain instead of a wipe stain.
I’ve used gel stain before and absolutely hated it. I used every brand they sell at Home Depot and I remember it dried too quickly, got tacky too quickly, all of my brush strokes were visible, and the paint was way too dark in all the places where my brush strokes overlapped. After that experience, I swore off gel staining years ago and haven’t tried it since.
But he recommended Old Masters gel stains, the same brand of wipe stains that I had used with such success on the piano. He also gave me some great tips like using a little Penetrol in the gel stain so it doesn’t dry too quickly. So I decided to try gel stains again. With that I left the store.
He suggested I wipe the whole thing down with acetone to remove excess wax, but of course I was too anxious to try the gel stain so I skipped that step. (I’m not particularly patient and following instructions.) So I tried the gel stain on the end of the console table. I wasn’t crazy about it, but I figured I just needed practice. What I really liked is that this product is completely different from the gel stain I used years ago. It remains very easy to process for a long time. No quick drying. No stickiness. It is very easy to use.
And then I decided to try it on a drawer front. It definitely toned down the orange, but I didn’t want to apply it too thick because I don’t want the color to be too dark so that the flecks of the original finish still show through.
At this point I was doubting my decision and reconsidering painting the whole thing, which I still haven’t completely ruled out. Here is a comparison of the drawer (without trim) with the original finish and the drawer with the gel stain. The gel stained drawer is better, but it’s still not what I want.
So I decided to put the stain aside for a while while I consider my options and move on to the other change I wanted to make to the console table (also based on your suggestions). I removed the bottom shelf. But because of the way I built the piece, I’m now left with the legs in two pieces. I’m not sure if I’ll try to repair these or if I’ll replace them entirely.
Basically, I’m making this up as I go along. I have my doubts that four turned wooden legs alone will be strong and stable enough to support the weight of the console with drawers, so I might try designing an entirely new base that provides more support.
Like I said, I’m making it up as I go along. But I think I’ll like it a lot better without the bottom shelf. And since I don’t like the yellow stain on the original orange, splotchy finish, I’m going to paint the whole thing a light brown color that doesn’t have orange in it, and then I’m going to apply the yellow stain over the new color to see if I can create a stained wood look that way.
I have no idea if this will work, but I’ll try. If all else fails, I can always fall back on the idea of painting the whole thing. However, if you have experience using yellow stain on a painted surface to create the look of stained wood, I would love your tips! I’ll try it, but if that doesn’t work I’ll give up gel stains forever.
