My wife (who else would want to add extra work to a project?) has decided she does not like the color of a honey oak cabinet I made. The exterior has a wipe on poly over a honey colored gel stain, the interior just the gel stain. Is there a way to get the color darker, more of a "reddish-brown" shade without stripping the finish? I realize thje interior shouldn't be a problem, my concern is the poly finished sides. Thanks.
I'm not sure if you can successfully tint poly, but I would guess that's your only bet, and then apply probably several coats to the outside of the cabinet. Not sure how thick you'll build up the finish, but probably significantly. I would suggest stripping and starting over, if you want to get a truly pleasing result.
Put one of those Stain/Poly mixes over it. I did it to some chairs so I wouldn't have to strip them. Wasn't anywhere near perfect (the stain/poly is difficult to get even) but it was close enough for the purpose and easy.
This seems to be the direction I was heading. I'll give it a try; if it needs to be stripped I'll let her do it!
Black paint works for me .....mjh
To darken the wood without obscuring the grain, try using some tinted shellac first followed by overcoating with more poly. If you use something like "Polyshades", you will find that the grain gets more obscured with each coat. It is also a little tricky to avoid getting lap marks since the laps will be darker due to two coats of the Polyshades. At least you can control the extent to which you tint the shellac so you can more easily avoid lap marks from showing. The shellac will also allow you to put down more poly since it serves as an excellent sealer and intercoat.
Good Luck.
To contact directly, remove both NGs.
Play with the tints on test strips of the wood from the cabinet. Always use test strips.
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