Can't wait to see pics!

Here's one pic. No top coat yet.

Wow...that looks great!

Looks awesome! I'm glad it worked out.

That does look good. Did you do any prep to the surface before the stain?

As someone who is about to dip into the staining pool, that is good to know! The color in your photo is a nice dark brown. Glad the correction worked out.

Thanks everyone. :)

Terri_pacnw, I lightly sanded with 220 sand paper and then cleaned very well with Method spray cleaner and a sponge with a soft scrubby side. I think that is more important than the sanding.

If you do a search for Celticmoon (garden web poster) and gel stain (search in Yahoo) you will find some great instructions. I also looked thru a bunch of blogs with instructions and took bits and pieces from all of them.

I used a microfiber cloth and followed with tack cloth to get dust before each coat.

Gry_Falcon, good look with your project.

Really, really nice. Thank you for sharing.