Java Gel Stain Your Bedroom Furniture!

Our bedroom furniture was really in bad shape. I’d love new furniture, but that’s not in the budget right now – and this set is really solid and sturdy – just needed a facelift. I’ve had such good success with gel staining my bathroom vanities that I decided to try using gel stain on my bedroom furniture. I did the bathrooms in Antique Walnut gel stain. This time I decided to go with dark Java gel stain.

Java Gel Stain Furniture How To:

I removed all the hardware, and since I decided to go with knobs, I filled in half the holes with wood putty. The putty sinks in when it dries, so I had to do it again, then sand til smooth. Of course, I cleaned the sanding dust off.

Then I applied the gel stain like I did in the bathrooms, with a white tube sock on my plastic wrapped hand. That’s what I found works fastest. It took probably 3 coats, with drying time in between. Then I finished with the clear gel topcoat, two coats, with the sock also. All that was left was to screw in the new hardware. I even stained the cherry ceiling fan and the bedposts to match.

I will warn you, we had to move into the guest room for several weeks during the process. And even afterwards, until the smell dissipated – leaving the door closed and windows open. That was a lot of staining. And a lot of work. Whew. But I love the new look.