Customer Reviews for Varathane 1 qt. Kona Stain and Polyurethane

I tried two times this product. First times I thought I didn't stirred well. leave a lot white cloud spots on my cabinet doors. Second time I stirred very well, same white spots on my cabinet doors. How this kind product is on the market? What can I do to fix these white cloud spots.

Very frustrated.Spent A LOT of time preparing wood, cleaning, sanding it, not to mention the time I spent going to home depot to buy this crap.This is the worst product I've ever used.It is difficult to work with, its like old nail polish that never dries just stays tacky. The worst part Is that it doesnt even work.Its not pigmented at all, I purchased mahogany & although it appears as a dark stain when applied its like clear with a hint off brown, no pigment at all.I feel like giving up and throwing out my entire desk now; rather than wait to see if this ever dries, then re-sand the area that I've done, go back to Home depot, & buy another product.Not to mention this is also the worst smelling product ever, with many cautions & warnings of all the things it can cause.The fumes made me noxious & I wont be surprised if I wake up with a 3rd eye ball, despit being used in a well ventilated area.I wish I would have read reviews before purchasing.I normally dont write reviews, but everything about this product is just awful: waste of time, waste of money, doesnt work, & I feel unwell after using product. Such a disappointment that Im thinking I just want to throw away my desk now, even though I just used it one area, before I realized it was crap.

I followed directions exactly and extremely unhappy with the results. Product goes on about the consistency of old nail polish, sanding after letting it dry for almost 20 hours seems to make this peel off in little clumps. After the final coat it looks more like I used cheap industrial brown paint instead of achieving a beautiful Kona finish. Feels like I waisted my time preparing and sanding beautifully grained red oak and building this desktop as well as money ( sand paper, stain, wood, hardware and brushes) to achieve a lackluster finished product.

I've been a custom woodworker for over 20 years. I've always used minwax stains & clears, both latex and poly with great success. I had to try this stuff out of desperation because of the quarantine and i regret it. I didn't find it particularly difficult to apply and I'll say that it did eventually end up looking good, it was NOT worth the grief. This stuff pools like crazy leaving leaving streaks of heavy and much darking coating on the edges that are virtually impossible to work out. I discovered that if you wait until its tacky you're better off using a piece of sharp edged soft wood to literally scrape the pooled product off. If you do it carefully you can do it pretty evenly save for a blotch here and there. Anything else you try will surely create An absolute disaster. The other huge problem with this stuff is drying time . The can says it's recordable after an hour, What this is not true because it stays tacky for hours and hours before you can ever touch it with your 220 grit. I am writing this right now because after 3 and a 1/2 hours of waiting for it to dry enough to sand, I'v decided to kill time by writing this review. And believe me you do have to send this stuff at least after the 1st coat . At this point I'm not sure I'll even get the final coat on today. If I had gone with Conventionally separate stain and clear i would be applying the final coat right now. Never again will i use this garbage. My biggest regret is that i now have to find a way to dispose of this crap without poisoning the planet. I should mention that i have used the minwax version and although it pools too, its easy to work the pooling out and it both dries a whole lot faster and actually soaks into the wood better. This junk sits on top until its completely dried & cured. What a pain. If you're trying to make something look aged & warn, this is the only place you will like this stuff because after a few hours you can actually scrape it off leaving the wood looking like it once was painted but wore off. (See photo) And yes, i keep my shop warm.

I purchased the Varatahne Kona Stain and Poly at the recommendation of Home Depot paint representative (from Varathane.) This product is replacing the Minwax Polyshades (which I like a lot.) I am an amateur woodworking-with a lot of experience finishing with stains, polys, and poly stains. It is always tricky till you get a product figured out. With the Varathane, I am baffled. The finish goes on great, but as it dries, there are bare places. See the attached photo. Is this is a reaction to something that I am doing? This is the 4th coat on cabinet grade plywood. I am waiting 24 hours between coats, machine sanding lightly in between with 220, and wiping away all the dust with a tack cloth. Brushed this last coat in the crossing direction (and I use a decent brush.) Maybe the tack cloth is leaving a residue that the Varathane Poly does not like, or perhaps something in the sandpaper? Ignore the one-coat-promo on the can. I hope this is helpful.

Terrible!!! Followed directions. In Wyoming and it’s summer. 84 degrees with 11% humidity. By the time one brush stroke was done the start point had dried, unbelievable! Streaks, uneven, can see where one stroke ended and the other started anew… Maybe a way to thin to keep from happening but, nothing about that anywhere. Stirred for 10 plus minutes to make sure it was well blended & mixed. Followed instructions to a tee. This should be great to hear their response as to what I did wrong…… DO NOT BUY!

The product even when the directions are followed perfectly fall far short of anything you should purchase. Uneven spread, incredibly thick in no way a professional or semi-professional product. So may Home Depot products are fabulous, this should be dropped from their line.

Funny the company is replying to all these reviews and blaming customers. Well, if there are THAT many people having issues, it's just a bad product. As a professional who has a lot of experience with wood finishes, I can confirm this. It's a self-defeating product. It has to go on thin to be even, not run, and dry within 48 hours. However, the product is so thick, that when you put it on thinly with a brush, there isn't enough to be absorbed by the wood pores. The brush just runs over the micro-crevices in the grain. Then if you put it on thicker, it clumps, streaks, and takes days to dry. There is no winning. The only way I've been able to get it to work is forcefully pushing a staining pad into the wood, up and down the grain. At that point, my hands and arms are cramping, and it's not worth it to not just use separate stain and poly. Just a bad product.

I purchased the Stain and Poly quart size Expresso color. Other stain brands were out of stock. Upon application on wood trim in our living room, the product clumped and streaked unevenly. The application sagged where the clumps formed. Dry time is more like 24 hrs and not the 1or 2 hrs. This product is not a substitute for better quality brands. Most likely you will be disappointed with it.

You will achieve a mess if you use this product. When the product says "Scratch resistant" hmm. After it dried more than 24 hours went to vac sanding dust and it left marks. After weeks of trying to work with this product-(horrible). It was not worth it. Problems I notice- It is too thick. It bubbles up. Application with the grain and you get splotches where despite an even application tension the product will be too thick in an area. The formula is off and too many applications will make the problems worse. I tried brushes, foam brushes, trowels and nothing. One thing is nice about the product though- Kona is a nice color. I cannot give this any stars because it has too many issues. Call me picky. I had to completely remove the product all together and I am back to starting over.

I probably don’t need to dig into the minutiae here, many other reviewers have already done me the privilege. Bottom line - workability, dry time, and a satisfactory end result are virtually not guaranteed with this product. One potential bonus is you won’t need to spend extra on cabinet hardware, since this stuff should stay tacky for years. Just stick your finger on the door, and that should be enough to open it.

I sanded my mom's table dusted stained with a stain brush ,lightly sanded top again and applied another coat.The table looked good left it in the carport overnight.Brought it into my house after 24 hrs. The fumes got so unbearable for my husband and myself we carried it to our detached garage overhang and left it for 5 days brought it back in about 4 hours latter took it back out due to the smell.What can I do about the smell?

I sanded my mom's table dusted stained with a stain brush ,lightly sanded top again and applied another coat.The table looked good left it in the carport overnight.Brought it into my house after 24 hrs. The fumes got so unbearable for my husband and myself we carried it to our detached garage overhang and left it for 5 days brought it back in about 4 hours latter took it back out due to the smell.What can I do about the smell?

This 2 in 1 poly and stain is a disaster to use. Its really thick and hard to get even coats. I will never be buying this again. Hard fail for varathane.

My husband purchased from Home Depot, as he didn’t see Mini Wax or any other brands with the color needed. Well bad idea! This is a $3000 barn door which now looks like trash! The product was very thick and ran every where. Instructions state you shouldn’t overlap which is almost impossible. At any rate there were light areas and extremely dark areas so I did another coat to balance. Bad idea! I can’t see the grains of wood. I can only see very thick areas of paint and I’m so frustrated by this. I wouldn’t recommend this product for doll furniture let alone anything of real value!

Took hours to sand down our nice table and then applied this and it was a disaster. It’s thick and doesn’t apply evenly and is sticky hours later. I tried a second coat and it looks even worse. I’m going to have to start all over again.

It was so sticky and showed every smudge or brush stroke, even after waiting the cure time, sanding and applying thin coats as recommended. I could literally scratch it off with my fingernail. I had to get new wood and regular stain without poly, so a huge waste of money.

It was so sticky and showed every smudge or brush stroke, even after waiting the cure time, sanding and applying thin coats as recommended. I could literally scratch it off with my fingernail. I had to get new wood and regular stain without poly, so a huge waste of money.

It was so sticky and showed every smudge or brush stroke, even after waiting the cure time, sanding and applying thin coats as recommended. I could literally scratch it off with my fingernail. I had to get new wood and regular stain without poly, so a huge waste of money.

Used this on a table top and 3 days later it’s still sticky to touch.

I bought this stain because of the apparent simplicity - one application and an hour drying time to be done with stain and poly seemed too good to be true. And in fact, it was too good to be true. I really like the color, and it looks great in spots. The problem with mixing the stain and poly into one is that it is too thick to distribute evenly or easily. It starts to dry and get tacky very rapidly, and it's incredibly difficult to get an even distribution of the color because of the viscosity of the product. A heavy application will leave you waiting overnight for it not to be tacky. All in all, it didn't ruin my project because it looks good if you don't look too closely, but I'll definitely opt for a separate stain and poly next time.

This stuff is very frustrating to use. Left really bad patches and brush marks. Did everything on can for directions and it still ruined my piece.

I bought this product with the recommendation from the sales person at Home Depot. Bought the synthetic brush. Sanded the door and cleaned it to remove any gloss or residue. Allowed it to dry. You cant in any way use this product without brush marks and spots.There is no time to go back and rebrush as it is sticky and a mess. After the final 3 coat I quit. I will never advise anyone to use this. Expensive mistake.

I’ve built painted and finished thousands of pieces in my day. The stain and poly never works out, even if your are cautious about the brush strokes , it till ends up looking like you spilled semi diluted paint all over your piece. Like working with mélasse , the dry time workability of this is short , and if you are working in warm dry weather ..forget it . Never again.

I would not recommend these products. first the the stain comes out blotchy no matter what you do and when you did get it even by shear luck, you apply the poly it gathers up the stain into blotches, I've worked with stain and poly for years and never have I had this much trouble, ours cost me 3 days work so far, no to neon the acetone to strip it all back down to bare wood again for the 4th time due to this crapy product

I have used this brand many times before, but never a stain + poly in one. If all you are staining is large flat surfaces you will be fine. But for a project with angles, tight corners or anything like that do not use this! It just doesn't soak into the wood like regular stain and blend. It is impossible to get even coverage in tight spaces. So disappointed! I feel like my custom bookcases are ruined now!

I was re-purposing an old upright pianoThe varathane (Kona ) was just the right colorSince it is water-based, cleanup was easy and the final shade and sheen were just right ( semi-gloss)

Was easy to use and apply. I love the end result

Beautiful, easy and effective to take my banisters from honey to dark chocolate.

Beautiful finish!! Looks like brand new!