Darkening grout with tumbled stone

[tileworn]

Hi,
I'm new to the forum, but looks like a great place to get advice.
We've recently tiled our kitchen backsplash, and I don't like the grout color (too light). Nothing has been sealed yet, and it's a tumbled stone (travertine).
I have read alot of confusing advice, not sure how much of it is specific to my situation with the unsealed travertine. Is there a simple way to darken the grout a bit without messing up the surrounding stone? There is ALOT of tile; staining it sounds very daunting. I've read you need to seal the tile first but not the grout, else you'll stain the stone. This will be very hard to do with all the tile, I think (wipe each stone without touching the grout? the edges are irregular, some grout is in the voids, etc. ). We don't plan on enhancing the stone at this point (tile guys says we can use penetrating sealer and enhance later if we want - but not the other way around. Is this true?). Can I just carefully paint enhancer on the grout and try to avoid the stone? Is this likely to produce a successful result?
Thanks much for any advice.

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[GeorgeT]

Yes, you can carefully paint enhancer on the grout lines.
No, it is not likely to produce a successful result.

The odds of enhancer getting on the tile are too great to bet on that process. And most enhancers don't strip out if you don't like the way they look.
Better to either Enhance everything at once or just seal with a non-color enhancing sealer and leave it at that.....

[tileworn]

Thanks for the quick response. Is it possible to seal everything with a non-enhancing sealer then enhance just the grout with another pass of enhancing
sealer, and have the tile protected? The reason I ask is that I was told once the tile was sealed with a non-enhancing sealer, it could be enhanced later. Not sure this makes sense,
maybe they meant if I stripped off the old sealer? But that type of sealer penetrates, whereas the enhancer sits on top of the stone, right? Still not sure that makes sense as far as sealing protecting the tile from the enhancer, yet it still allows the grout to be enhanced.
Thanks again

[GeorgeT]

Enhancers work best when there is nothing else in the stone... if you seal the stone first with a penetrating sealer that does not produce a color change, there is little "room" left for the enhancer to penetrate and do its thing.
Sealing first will not protect the tiles from the enhancer, however it may cause the effect of the enhancer to not be as pronounced....
Most enhancers are also penetrating sealers... the whole principle of enhancing requires the product to soak into the stone because (science lecture time :) ) to enrich the colors of the masonry material, light needs to be able to penetrate the material as deeply as possible. The surface and top 1-2 millimeters of the masonry are really lots of little crevices and voids that trap light and bounce it around....to your eye this is hazy or lighter colored etc...
An enhancer uses a chemistry that "fills" these voids and crevices with a clear component that still allows the stone to breath but also allows light to penetrate further in the surface... which your eye interpretes as darker...or enhanced.

So don't seal before enhancing for full enhancer effect....
and a sealer will not hold an enhancer out of one type of masonry and not another.... but it may lessen its impact....