How to make a Metal Door look like Wood with ZAR® Wood Stain

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Let’s say you are replacing a door and the door you’re going to use is perhaps s steel door, maybe a fiberglass door or even a fiber core door, yet the look you’re trying to achieve is this, a rich woodgrain look. Well, I’m going to show you how you can do this very easily using ZAR® Wood Stain. All you need are a few simple things: ZAR® Wood Graining Tool, a dry brush and some lint-free rags or an inexpensive foam brush ZAR® Wood Stain and Polyurethane. So, let me show you just how easy it really is. What we’re going to do is wood grain this door, this is a steel door but before we do anything we need to make sure that it’s clean. You can use a paint thinner, or a mineral spirit and mineral spirits is what I am going to use.

Now, I’ll work on just one section at a time beginning with the inside panel. I’ll wipe on a thin coat of stain like this and then draw the graining tool down using a rocking motion to create the wood grain pattern. Ok, the one thing you always want to do is the center panels or the inside raised panels first and work your way out to the longer runs of the door it simply works better that way. Now something I did not mention to you earlier, there are areas where the graining tool will not reach, those areas are right in here and sometimes you’ll get puddles of stain down in there, but that’s not a problem, all you have to do is get a dry brush and work those puddles out and simulate the grain and brush it, just like so and smooth it out and then you have a nice smooth finish and it works great. Now as far as graining the longer panels, there really is no one way to use the graining tool it’s up to your taste. Just don’t get carried away with the rocking of the tool and it will, well also don’t push sideways. There’s an oops there but that is one of the beauties of this product, you do not have to worry about it, you come back with fresh stain, watch this. Fresh stain all the way down on this cheesecloth. Start over and then try not to make an oops again Pat.

Once I’ve gotten the look I want, I’ll let the door dry. Okay, the grain coat is dry now, it’s a brand new day so we are ready for the next step which is to apply the tone coat. Using the same ZAR® Wood Stain, I’ll apply another thin coat of stain using a lint-free cloth. A thin coat will reveal more of the grain, a heavier coat will hide it. This really does look like wood. Use a dry brush to feather out any streaks or lap marks then simply let the stain dry. Finally, we need to apply a protective finish. Since this side is going to be exposed to direct sunlight, we’ll use ZAR® Exterior Polyurethane for the outside of the door for the inside surface of the door we’ll use ZAR® Interior Polyurethane. Fiberglass and composite doors come with a wood grain pattern already embossed in the surface. To finish these embossed doors you can simply wipe on ZAR® Wood Stain, working it into the grain, smooth the stain out in the direction of the embossed grain pattern then use a dry brush to feather out any streaks or lap marks. It’s just that easy.

You too can achieve the same wood stain look on your own and as you saw it was very easy. Look for ZAR® Wood Stain and ZAR® Polyurethane at your paint store, your hardware store, your lumberyard and your home center.