You can call them for tech support and they have vids on their site to assist. Gel is mostly for wood that doesn't take stain easily. But I'd identify your wood and call them. Test on the back of drawer fronts first. For example, if your wood is red birch you'll need gel.

Are you planning to strip and sand the cabs? If not, you have to gel stain. If gel staining, practice on tge back of a door to see what the stain looks like over your existing finish.

Remember that stain over already stained is just that, since stain need to soak into the wood. Since your cabinets are already finished, stain cant soak into the wood, so it will just sit on top. You will need to do several coats, to make it look decent.

General's Nutmeg or Candlelight seem to be lighter than the Brown Mahogany and closer to your inspiration, but I agree with above, gel staining over a finish is likely to leave you desiring a better looking finish. You can use the gel stain after sanding/stripping, it's easier to use because it's less drippy than regular oil based stains, and you should get a nice, even finish with it.

Refinishing cabinets is a chore, prep is 90% of the work, at least you have slab doors/drawer fronts so no crevices/mouldings to mess with.

P.S. Do all your doors have centered pulls? Do you plan to keep them that way?

I agree stripping and sanding before using the gel stain, or you could just clean well, sand well, prep well, use a good bonding and sealing primer, and paint them using paint that is specially for painting cabinets. Both are a lot of work and neither way, will y ou finish up in a day or two or three. Depending upon how many cabinets you have, it will take weeks either way.

We used General Finishes water based stain in black over top of our 100 year old orangey fir doors and trim. This was 2-3 years ago and it has held up well. I keep meaning to put a clear coat over top, but haven't. The doors and trim weren't sanded, but the finish on them was old. We also put it on stairs to our third floor - they were sanded and have held up really well. I did put one clear coat on top of the stairs.

The door to my daughter's bedroom has a few nicks in it where you can see the orangey colour thru (she is pretty rough on things).

I bought our GF stain at Lee Valley. They were extremely knowledgeable and helped me decide what to buy.

Sorry, I might not have been clear, but these aren't kitchen cabs, but full doors. I'll still try to take a pic and post.

Kayleigh - yes, refinishing them is going to take a while to do a good job that you're happy with for years. I'm a little concerned about the filled holes for the centered pulls, I've not tried filling holes and gel staining but from reading around wood working sites on the net, some fillers (even if they say they are stainable) do not stain to the same color as the surrounding wood. Do some research and ask when purchasing your products for the project so you can get the best, most blendable look possible.

If you only want your cabs a shade or three darker (and the clear finish over the wood is in very good shape), I had good luck using gel stain as a toner of sorts, I applied it like a wax to a console table and tall bookcase, rubbed it on sections and then buffed it off with a clean cloth.

Even though it is like a transparent paint, it also has staining properties, it stained the clear coat on my pieces just enough to tone down the orangey in one and darken up a too-light finish on the other. Just something else to add to your considerations.

Wonderful, just clean them up really well with a degreaser (tsp, Spic n' Span, etc.) and a very light sand to smooth everything (a sanding sponge should do it) beforehand. Whatever you use to fill the pull holes get it as close to the current wood color as possible, if worse comes to worse and the fill is noticeable, get an artist's brush and some watered down brown paint and make a grain line or two through them to blend the fills in. And don't forget to post pics so we can all share in your results. :)

Gel stain on something like maple just ends up looking like mud. Or a bad paint job. You need wood like oak that has a prominent grain that can't be covered. Even then, the light colors don't come out well. They blotch unless you do several coats. Then it looks like paint.