How to Paint a Door to Look Like Wood

Changing the Color of our Fiberglass Door

If you have a fiberglass door, you can paint it to look like stained wood with these few simple steps! And it only takes a couple of hours.

Materials

• English Oak Base Coat*
• Honey Oak Finish Coat*
• quality paint brush*

OR

• Giani Honey Oak kit*

Sun-Damaged Door

Our house faces south. Which means our front door takes a beating from the sun almost every single day.

For reference, our door and current dark stain is 7.5 years old. We originally stained it with a gel stain since it’s a fiberglass door ( with faux wood grain) back in early 2012.

BUT I don’t think we applied a polyurethane topcoat as is specified on the gel stain can. So it’s been looking iffy for a few years now. And I’ve really been loving the light and natural wood look lately. So here’s how I made it happen without stain!

Paint in Layers

In an episode of Today’s Homeowner last spring, I helped a homeowner apply a wood-look paint kit* to their garage door and front door. My blog post on Cozy Curb Appeal 4 Ways has more about this house’s transformation.

Well we had paint leftover, so I decided to try it on my door!

The kit comes with a base coat and a tinted top coat. They work together to create the layered and streaky look of stained wood. For my door I started out using the base coat from the English Oak kit.

But since I wanted a lighter wood look than in the previous example, I ordered the Honey Oak top coat from Amazon. They don’t sell the individual pints in stores, so I had to hit pause on this project while I waited for it to be delivered.

Once it came in, it was wood grain time! I applied the second/finish/top coat just like painting any recessed panel door. You can watch my video on painting a front door by clicking here.

As with any door, you want to make sure your brush strokes are long, even, and look nice. This is of even greater importance when you’re creating a wood look since your brush strokes will be the ‘wood grain’.

After I covered the whole door with the top coat. It looked like a totally different and happy door that I’ve been dreaming about for a few years now!

Progress Over Perfection

Our front door makeover is part of my larger plan to freshen up the whole front porch. I previously shared about pressure washing and sealing our front sidewalk. Still on the list is to touch up the paint on the balusters and the stain on the handrails. Now I’m thinking about doing these same steps on the handrails since they no longer match the front door!

And just to keep it real. I finished this project around Christmas and planned to share it then.

But I didn’t so I took new pictures without Christmas decorations in them.🤣 In case you feel like it takes you forever to complete projects, this is your sign that you are not alone!

And since I’m ‘extra’, my husband got me a new wood flag pole* for Christmas which I proceeded to ‘stain’ to match the front door! Sometimes I literally can’t help myself.

My favorite welcome mat* was a treat to myself while I was pregnant with our youngest. I’ve bought it for several Today’s Homeowner projects and thought it was time I had one for myself too.💁🏼

Thanks for Checking In! ~Chelsea

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