Sometimes that is necessary but if you have a piece without much of a topcoat sealer poly etc.
Gel stain over a varnished wooden garage door.
The gel stain is thick like pudding not a liquid.
Apply a thin even coat of gel stain to a section using a natural bristle brush or a soft lint free cloth.
Gel stain usually dries very quickly especially on a sunny day.
You need to work in small areas.
So i did a minor touch up by re sanding the door applying the stain where needed then applying new coats of varnish.
Spread on spackling compound.
With water based varnishes re application on outdoor surfaces is a fact of life.
When brushing work on each section of the door at a time and try to mimic the direction of natural wood grain.
I shared the makeover of a mid century modern credenza last week where i used general finishes gel stain over the existing finish on the piece and wanted to share how i did that.
The great thing about using a gel stain is it will sit on a vertical surface without dripping.
Our gel stained garage door makeover happened one year ago so i m giving you guys an update.
We ve lived in our home almost 7 years now.
Apply downward pressure while moving the graining tool across the section at a constant speed.
Prime with stain killing primer.
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.
This is a lot less work than staining the door originally so it wasn t too bad.
Prime with tinted primer.
Or you can follow the direction of the garage door pattern.
At the end of the re application my door was as good as new.
Transform your garage door to a gorgeous faux wood door with this easy gel stain diy garage door makeover.
Stain over paint or existing stain without having to strip your old finish.
With the oak cabinets the grain was very evident post staining.
Apply in the direction of the grain you intend to create.
While the gel stain is wet use a graining tool to create a wood grain pattern.
Paint with acrylic latex.
Gel stain will not require you to sand the product to a raw wood finish.
I think one misconception is that you have to strip and sand a piece down to bare wood before you can re stain it.
Since we moved into our home our brown painted aluminum garage door had faded more and more.
Sand with 150 grit paper.
Painting over stain steps.
However the garage door will need to sit for up to 48 hours to allow the stain to dry completely.
We stained the doors hanging this made it much easier as we could finish both sides without having to wait for the opposite side to dry.
Affiliate links included for your convenience we used a less than 20 can of gel stain to transform our paint faded aluminum garage door.