No.

Darker wins.
More stain means darker.

You might not like this, but I'd use some Citristrip to get the stain out of the wood. How long you leave it on would determine how much comes out. The thing is, you can lighten it this way, then you could put chocolate stain on them. Use stain, not gel stain.

Just out of curiosity, why did you decide on gel stain? It's really just paint. And Java always means almost black brown.

Yeah, it seems that adding another layer of a gel type stain, no matter what the color, would make it even darker. If not darker, definitely NOT lighter.

I would call the friendly people at General Finishes. Or try mineral spirits. Sometimes gel stain takes a while to dry completely.

You can try rubbing the cabinets down with mineral spirits and fine steel wool to remove some of the stain. If that doesn't work, strip and start over, testing the color before you commit to doing the entire set.

I prefer to wipe the stain on in thin layers instead of applying a thick layer and trying to wipe it off evenly. It's easier to control the final color.

Thanks for your feedback.

Fortunately I'm only into the project by 6 cabinet door (backs and sides only) so I can certainly make corrections at this point and not stress over it.

CEFreeman, thanks for your suggestion on the citristrip. I chose the GF gel stain due to all the success people (GW and Pinterest) have with it covering oak and perhaps more importanly the laminant sides of the cabinets. It is a fantastic product and easy to use. Most pics of the Java looked like what I going for and the Brown Mahogany looked too light.

Nosoccermom, I did reach out to GF so I'll see what they say.

Even though gel stain is essentially paint, it has a translucence that will let the wood grain show through. But Christine is right about dark winning. Try putting a blonde rinse on very dark hair.

I had a fail using GF gel stain on a small desk. I didn't want to go dark. I ended up stripping it down to bare wood and starting over with real oil stain.

We are having pretty good success right now with GF Antique Walnut gel stain over '80s golden oak. So far with two coats, the grain shows and is not offensive - in fact the brown tone looks fairly rich. Stopping at 2 coats then will poly over. We briefly considered Java just to make sure we could defeat that orange look, but felt it was too dark and opaque. If you are starting over, the AW could be a nice choice.

I think it helps that in our kitchen, we painted the uppers BM White Dove just so the room wouldn't be so dark.

pebscat, can you post pictures when you're done? There's a huge demand to see what GF AW looks like :)

Hi Pebscat,

Thanks for the suggestion. Please post a pic if/when you have a chance.

:)

We should be rehanging some cab doors by the weekend and I'll try to get a good pic posted by then.

Thanks for sharing Pebscat. The brown mahogany did end up working over the java after all. No more black, just the deep, rich chocolate I was after. :)

I'm glad we both ended up being pleased. Love this gel stain.

Oh I like that too! Nice! Love the gel stain - so easy.

That color is perfection. Glad you went for it and that it worked out.

Wow, love both the antique walnut and the mahogany over java.

@homebody: Great to know that putting one color stain over the other works. Did you try it, or did the GF people tell you?

@pebscat: Could you start a separate thread with before and after pics? There were several people who wanted to see the AW in real life over honey oak cabinets.

I know, this gel stain is addictive :)

I also slapped it over a crappy brown paint job of oak cabinets ---- there was no way I was going to strip the paint, so just some light sanding to get rid of stuck on pain tbrush hairs --- and it looked so much better.

Hi nosoccermom, I did reach out to GF and they told me it would Not work... lol. I decided to try it anyway as I just had a feeling it would work. It's probably because the product acts more like a paint than a true stain. You are so right, this gel stain is addictive... I'm already thinking of doing the bathroom once the kitchen is completely finished.

I accidentally touched my stain before it was dry and it left a smear on top. What I did next was not a good choice. I used the rag that had a little stain left on it and wiped slightly over the area. BAD MOVE. This 2"x10" streak was darker than all the rest. After searching the internet for ways to fix this mistake, I really didn't find many solutions other than to sand back down or use mineral spirits. I am not a fan of mineral spirits or anything that strong....so I decided to use rubbing alcohol to correct this mistake. Although it won't remove the stain totally, it did lighten the area up enough so that it's not noticeable. This is a much better alternative for me. I would imagine that it will remove the stain fairly well if it has not had time to sit very long. I used it after about 3 days of sitting and it helped with the removal of the top layer. Just thought I would post a solution for a smaller scale mistake.

Hi Quick question for homebody oasis and pebscat? What finish did you use? Satin? Gloss? Semi gloss?