Faux Wood Doors

Way before Christmas, just as it was getting to be crisp and cold outside, I faux painted a client's doors to look like wood. They had recently bought metal doors and wanted a treatment to look like a high quality, rich wood. 

My clients live out in the country, and the exterior of their house is sort of like a cabin. The interior of the kitchen, where the doors are, is a more traditional look which I blogged about here. (I did a lot of glazing work for them two years ago)

Here's a photo:

Its actually all finished being decorated in there now, but I don't have a completed photo. 

Anyway! The doors used to look like this:

Then they bought new ones. 

They were metal and pre primed in a tan color. They were similar to this:

My client wanted a darker, richer look on the inside:

I really wish I had the before pictures (they were on my old phone) because it was such a huge difference, but we really achieved that rich look. I use a faux painting product called Stain and Seal then a high-quality sealer to finish it all off. It really looks like stained wood!

For the outside of the doors, it was more of a blending of styles. My client's husband had picked out the cedar style house, and she and him were compromising with the door. So, we decided the color should be darker in contrast to the house, not as red, but not as dark and rich as the inside, because it wouldn't match the style of the exterior. 

We were going for the color of the darker grain on the wood logs.

we were really happy with the result color.

here's an upclose shot so you can see the detail:

When I do these projects, I mix my "stain" color by hand to achieve the color I'm going for. My client was really curious about the stain color, and I told her - it's not like Minwax stain or something, where you buy one color and rub it on. It is more like paint, where you can be VERY specific about the color you want; mixing it all by hand.

I painted the trim and the door jamb too. 

It's crazy the difference this made. I REALLY wish I had those before photos. 

Have a great weekend everyone!