Starting with orange oak the only way to get gray and not mud is to paint them.
Grey gel stain on oak cabinets.
Pine and birch were both splotchy and inconsistent.
However my bright kitchen will not see gel stain.
The quart of poly cost 28 50 with shipping the rough cost to refinish the cabinets with gel stain was.
I was worried about the gel stain looking the same on the unfinished cabinet doors as the rest of the kitchen where the gel stain was resting on top of an oak finish.
The quart that i bought to finish the project was 27 50 with shipping.
Gray over orange is just ugly mud colored.
Stripping to bare wood beyond hugely labor intensive will make the gray go over the raw pink nature of red oak so you get a pink gray more kin to the 80 s pink whitewash g technique than the current fad of gray stain.
My first 1 2 pint of gel stain was 14 48 with shipping.
However there is no way i would attempt using gel stain on my kitchen cabinets as others have.
Stain the front of the cabinet doors with light and even strokes to avoid clumping.
I m happy to report that the gel stain went on the unfinished doors easily and matched all of the old doors almost perfectly.
Remove cabinet doors drawers knobs and hinges stain the cabinet fronts by applying gel stain on a sponge brush with light and even strokes to avoid getting stain on the insides.
Maybe it was my oak cabinets but i have never had so much trouble getting something to look even.
In the darker rooms like the bathrooms in our house this worked out fine.