I have used minwax gel stain with wonderful results. Gel stain is MAGIC in a can!! Following are just a few examples: I purchased vintage Henredon bamboo look headboard that was to light for my taste, kind of a yellow paint finish with brown fleck here and there. I simply wiped off the dust and applied the gel stain using a wad of cheese cloth . It took 2 coats to achieve the desired color I wanted. It. was quick and easy (be sure to wear gloves) Now it is dark walnut and beautiful. Also, I used the gel stain on a beautiful 1950's mahogany side board which was to redish-orange to go well with my dining table and chairs. This time I removed the hardware and lightly sanded the piece with the finest steel wool then dusted it and applied the stain again using a wad of cheese cloth. Results excellent. I'm sorry that I don't know how to post pictures. I'll have to get a lesson on that soon!

I am definitely not an expert, but I just started experimenting with 'brown mahogany' gel stain on spare leaves of my dining room table (a sentimental piece, which was my grandmother's, but is not a valuable antique). The table has an oak color veneer, with graining that is much more subtle than true oak; I'm not sure what wood is under the veneer. I had trouble achieving the degree of coverage that I wanted applying the gel stain with a foam brush (too heavy, & showed lines where the brush strokes were) or a rag (too light). After some trial and error (and removing my unsatisfactory attempts before the gel stain dried), I found that using a foam roller gave me the color change that I wanted, without completely covering the grain. With one coat applied using the foam roller, the gel stain changed the table leaf to a darker mahogany color to coordinate better with my chairs. I haven't yet sealed it, as I will probably add a second coat. The general finishes website has a video, in the gel stain product category, that shows its use with a piece that has been sanded down. They first applied a dye stain, and topped it with a gel stain to achieve the color they wanted. That video may help you decide what to do with your table.

I have had great luck spray painting furniture black and then going over it with light spritzing with brown spray paint giving it a dark brown/ oil rubbed bronze look. Very easy DIY for us lazy furniture finishers. I have done this to accent tables, light fixtures, picture frames,old brass lamps, curtain rods, rocking chair anything can be spray painted! The prep is usually a good cleaning and maybe a light sanding if it is a wood item. I have also gel stained oak bathroom cabinets but I always paint them first with brown paint then a coat or 2 of the java or mahogany gel stain. When we where prepping our house to sell I wanted to get rid of all the old brass lights so I just spray painted it all with the above technique and it looked great! I even painted the exterior lighting and it held up nicely. Picture below: painted and gel stained bath vanity in house we sold.

bobsmyuncle, you got me. Not sure what piece is missing for you. The bottom line is I want to give this desk a new finish, a new look, a better wood tone. I don't care if the grain shows and it still looks like oak. I'm aiming for a rich mahogany, not a dark java. This is not a set of kitchen cabinets that commands and defines the room, not even a bathroom vanity. It's a little desk in a cluttered office that I want to have a more pleasing color. My prior experience in refinishing wood has been with strip/sand/stain/poly. I'm now sitting at my kitchen table (maple or cherry, still undecided) that I refinished in a hurry 33 years ago and it will surely outlive me. Still looks good. So I still have a bit of a sanding mentality. As for the Sharpie marks. I did try denatured alcohol and it had no effect. They're close to the front of the desk top and visible enough that I wanted to remove them. Sanding was the only thing that did that. What's done is done. Remember, I'm *not* planning to put on so much gel stain that everything beneath it is obscured. The surface of the wood was rough in places. God knows what got spilled on this desk over the past 25 years. Mostly I've used a sanding sponge and that has smoothed everything out. On the top, some of the stain/finish has been gone long before I did any sanding, so let's call it the condition in which I found it. I do understand that gel stain goes over old stain/finish. My only concern is uneven color on the original, i.e., will gel stain be able to even out the uneven color? I suspect it will as I can apply a little more to those areas. I am somewhat confused by something handymac said. If I sand the old finish off (which I have only done in the Sharpie zone) I won't get it out of the grain, therefore the new stain won't stain. If that's the case, and people typically don't remove any of the stain when they use this product, how is it working at all for them?