How to paint a wooden door with your own hands

13.04.2021

How to properly paint a wooden door, we will consider in detail in this article. There may be several options here. In the first one you want to keep the wood structure and in the second it overlaps. There will be a different approach here.

We decide what paint to paint the wooden door at the first stage and after that we apply the dye. You can also see some moments in the video in this article and photos.

Painting rules

How to paint wooden doors now we will analyze in more detail. You should not part with an interior or entrance wooden door if it has lost its original appearance.

It can serve you for many more years, if only you paint it with your own hands. In addition, this will significantly save your budget and get a completely new door that will harmoniously fit into the interior.

Attention: Do-it-yourself painting a wooden door is considered the easiest way to repair. In order for the result of such work to be the best, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with all the features of their implementation.

First of all, experts advise to study the compositions for such staining, which are best used to get the desired result.

What kind of paint to use for such work

There are a lot of compositions with which you can qualitatively paint a wooden door. When choosing them, you need to be guided by what you would like to get as a result: skillfully emphasized the natural beauty of wood, or a completely decorated door, with a completely hidden textural pattern.

In accordance with taste preferences, the following can be chosen as a coating:

Transparent and tinting varnishes, stains, oil impregnations. They are able to both refresh the color of wood and give it radically new shades without hiding its texture;
Opaque paints with alkyd, polyurethane, acrylic, oil base, as well as nitro paints.

The most popular paint, of all of the above, is alkyd enamel:

Its color palette is diverse, the price is low. In addition, its important advantages are considered: high water-repellency, quick drying, good resistance to sudden changes in temperature. The only inconvenience in its use is a rather sharp and unpleasant smell that does not disappear for a long time.
Acrylic paints are almost odorless. In addition, they dry quickly, have an optimal consistency for brush work. A wooden surface painted with this type of paint will turn out matte. The cost of such enamel is quite high. Additional costs when using it will be required for the purchase of acrylic varnish, the application of which must be after painting.
Nitro-paint is considered the strongest and most durable. Coloring with it must be done on the street or in a well-ventilated area, otherwise there is a risk of poisoning, due to the fact that its composition is very toxic.

Attention: When choosing paint for interior doors, it is necessary to pay attention to their safety. If we are talking about an entrance street door, then you should choose the coating that will best provide a protective function in conditions of temperature extremes, high humidity.

Often, wooden doors are simply varnished or stained, which allows you to preserve the unique texture of the wood. Coloring with their help is carried out in several layers, until the moment when the color looks perfect.

Preparatory work

The quality of staining directly depends on how carefully the door leaf is prepared for such work. Let's look at ways to remove paint from a wooden door.

Initially, all previous traces of staining must be removed from its surface (see).
Cracked layers of paint are removed with a scraper or spatula.
After their elimination, the door is cleaned using a grinder or special paper.

This method is quite time consuming, so many prefer other effective and fairly simple methods:

thermal method	This cleaning of the door from outdated paint involves exposing it to high temperatures. For this purpose, you can use a building hair dryer, a blowtorch. Under their action, the paint softens, which is quite easy to remove with a spatula. If the door has plastic fittings or glass inserts, then this method cannot be used, first, if possible, glass and plastic parts must be removed.
Chemical method (wash)	For its implementation, organic solvents with special chemical additives are used. They are able to dissolve all paints and varnishes. They can be applied with a brush, sprayer, cloth or roller. If the layer of paint to be removed is small, then, almost immediately, it swells and can be removed with a spatula. If there are several layers, the procedure is repeated as many times as necessary.

So:

In the case when the wooden door darkened under the paint, it should be impregnated with bleach and chlorine. It is added to water in a ratio of 1:3. Upon completion of the release of the door from unnecessary paint, you need to inspect it for the presence of defects. If irregularities and cracks are found, they are covered with a special putty for wooden surfaces (see).
Then the door leaf is sanded with sandpaper, all dust is removed from it and its surface is thoroughly wiped with a damp cloth. After drying, you can start painting.

The procedure for painting a wooden door

You can paint with a spray gun, but if you only need to process one canvas, you should not buy it. In this case, it is advised to purchase a narrow paneled brush and a roller designed for painting all types of canvases.

To facilitate the work, the door can be dismantled and placed in a horizontal position on two stools, a comfortable surface or goats. This will help you apply paint faster and more evenly.
When it is impossible to dismantle the door leaf, then you need to block it so that it is easy to go to a convenient place for painting any part of it. This will also help prevent accidental closing of the door, which will damage already applied and not yet dried layers of paint.
If there are glass inserts on the door and it is problematic to remove them, before painting, they must be covered with a film or newspaper, and carefully secured with masking tape. Accessories that cannot be removed, the door lock, are also wrapped with newspaper and fixed.

Attention: The used adhesive tape is peeled off immediately after painting is completed, before the paint dries.

Painting a wooden door is carried out in several stages:

Apply the initial layer of paint, which will act as a primer, using a roller. To paint corners and small details, use a panel brush. You can also use the spray gun, if you have one;
Wait for drying and grind the applied primer layer, then eliminate traces of dust;
A second coat of paint is applied, which is considered finishing;
After the paint has dried (after a few days), the door is varnished.

Attention: The paint used as a primer should be several shades lighter than the final coat. Only in this case, it will not affect the desired result.

The staining scheme should be selected taking into account the characteristics of the door leaf. So, the shield door initially needs to be painted across (from left to right).
After the first layer dries, apply the next one, in a vertical direction. Then, after it dries, it is painted in the opposite direction to what was originally used.
Paneled doors are painted, first from the recesses, and only then they are processed according to the standard scheme.

Staining a wooden door with wood stain

The price of such coverage is not significant. It will highlight the tree structure.

This procedure has its own characteristics:

First, the wooden canvas should be moistened. This will help the dye evenly spread over its surface.
If at the final stage it is planned to varnish the door, then you need to start painting it from below. This will help prevent splashes and drops from getting on the unpainted part of the canvas. If upon completion the coating is planned to be opaque, then you can start from above.
After applying the first layer of stain, you need to wait for the door to dry and sand it. Then you need to clean the canvas of dust and apply another layer of stain. The procedure is repeated until the dried canvas acquires the desired color.

Attention: When choosing an alcohol stain, the grinding procedure is not needed. The door treated with such a composition dries much faster. However, compared to the safe conventional composition, it is quite toxic.

How to achieve wood imitation

This can be done on any surface, for this you need:

Paint the door with light beige, gray or green enamel and wait for it to dry;
Using a brush, cover the canvas with liquid soap;
Apply dark color paint, wash off the soap.

There is also another method that helps to achieve a similar effect.

To reproduce it, you need a special brush, which can be easily bought at any hardware store. The soft fibers of the prepared canvas need to be processed with it with a technique resembling combing.
Then the surface is painted with dyes of different colors. When the door dries, it is polished. The use of this method helps to achieve the effect of annual rings on a wooden canvas, due to the fact that its structure after brushing becomes different in all areas and the paint falls on them differently.
Covering the door with varnish is also easy. To begin with, it is advised to apply test strokes on the wrong side of the door, and then on the main one. You can also practice on similar surfaces.

Attention: The varnish has different shades. The darker it is, the more difficult it will be to cover this layer with dye.

You can see how to varnish a wooden door in separate articles on our website. The instructions here will be a little different.