staining problem/help

[Jim Chandler]

Hello all,

Getting on 2 years ago I started to built a bathroom cabinet that I never got around to finishing. The case is oak vener plywood and the face frame is ash. I just recently got around to milling the wood and making the door for the cabinet, again out of oak and ash. I stained the cabinet first with cherry gel stain and it turned out very nice. The rails and stiles on the door however are staining up far lighter? ?? I have tried leaving the gel stain on longer and doing multiple coats but I'm having no luck. The oak plywood of the door is not an issue.

Is there anything I can do about this?

[Steve Schoene]

You can mask the panel and darken the frame with a rattle can dye toner from a company like Mohawk. You will probably have to find this on line, and select several colors that look about right from color charts, since the actual result depends heavily on the underlying color as well the color of the toner itself.

The best time to have figured this out is on scrap before you touched the actual project pieces. Then you could have used a dye on the bare wood of the frame to harmonize the colors before applying your stain coat. You will still have to make up some sample boards to duplicate what you have done so far, in order to test the effect of the toners before you apply them to the project.