I looked around and didn't see an answer to this question. I have a wood door on my house that was looking a little dull. It had been finished at the factory with a black stain-lacquer combination. I thought I'd be smart and "clean" it up a bit after 10 years of sun damage, so I bought the right can of stain-lacquer and tried applying it with a brush. The results look pretty poor and I'm afraid to touch it again. I talked to a paint professional about fixing my mess, but he wasn't interested. 

What can I do about this? I thought about trying to gently apply some lacquer thinner with a cotton cloth and just slowly rubbing it down until I'm back to the original state of the door, but I'm not sure of that will work. My understanding is that lacquer (and lacquer thinner). 

The other thing I thought of was mixing the stain with lacquer thinner and (again) trying to apply a coat or two. But given the prior results, I'm very concerned about this. 

Any advice?