Gel Stained Bedroom Furniture, Lighting Fixtures & Coffee Table

OK I am back...sorry for the long wait for my son's bedroom furniture being posted. I get side-tracked easily (re-decorating my bedroom, painting and hey! I got a real customer I am gel-staining her table for. Oh, and I found a kitchen table on the side of the road I fixed up. And spray painted my garden Arbor a cool teal color. More of that later) 

Back to the furniture. Here is the before: (GAW I love before and after pics!) 

EEK! Blonde Wood!

Sorry for the mess. I forget to take proper before pics

This was before sanding, it was just a very pale pink/blonde wood.

Before and 1 coat

Tada! After

(Hardware purchased at Target)

 Again, side by side before & afters

So I usually do only 2 coats, sometimes 1 coat of Java Gel Stain. However, on these light colored pieces, I had to do 3 coats each, and 2 coats of poly, since my son is 15 years old and I wanted to add more protection on the surfaces. Again, I bought the hardware at Target for like $29 and it was a 10pc set of Brushed Nickle door pulls, to give it more of a masculine look. 

Then I was bored. I found a coffee table online for $10. It was shaky, had gum and cat hairs all over it and looked like a few kids and dog had all cut their teeth on it. Either that, or the people raised a houseful of hungry Beavers. Regardless, it was a nice coffee table underneath the misuse, and the glass inserts were in great condition.

Here is the before:

 I would like to emphasis the beaver bites, so I am enlarging the picture for you

 Sanded down the scratches & bites, reinforced the screws and 2 coats of Java and 1 coat of Poly, and here it is. Looks brand new.

At a recent workshop, I was showing the ladies how you can Gel Stain anything, other than wood. So I brought an old lighting fixture (I call them "Boob Lights" because, well, you get it)

It is a Nickle Brushed fixutre, matched no other lighting fixtures in my house.

After! It matches now :)

Now on this application, I used my trusty sponge brush, and "patted" the gel stain on, to give it a hammered-effect. I did 1 coat of "patting", and no poly. I can imagine any Gold lighting fixture would look even better than the nickle.

On to the horrid, lonely end table. This poor thing has survived every kid I have. In fact, as I was sanding it, I had to sand off my own children's bite marks, 3 pieces of gum and the word "Poop" written in ink, on top. (not normally necessary to sand raw wood, but in this case of sheer neglect and rebellion of time-out, it was)

Before (obviously)

I wasn't sure how it would turn out, since this wood was so porous. So I started by using a "regular" stain, in the Walnut color.

The drawer took the real stain good, but I wasn't pleased how it didn't cover it

The real Walnut stain looked like someone poured green pea soup on top. Or, as my naughty child had predicted in writing "Poop".

Then I said to heck with it, and covered it with Java Gel Stain. It coated it really nicely (no surprise!) and hid all the imperfections that I couldn't sand away.

It's not the most gorgeous piece I have ever stained, but considering how it looked when I started it, I would give it a 1 thumbs up and keep it, after all.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at these pictures, and as always, if you decide to order the Java Gel Stain, I highly recommend you get that and the poly I use is PolyAcrylic Water Based