Gel Stain Over A Varnished Wooden Garage Door

I shared the makeover of a mid century modern credenza last week where i used general finishes gel stain over the existing finish on the piece and wanted to share how i did that.

Gel stain over a varnished wooden garage door.

Spread on spackling compound. Painting over stain steps. At the end of the re application my door was as good as new. So i did a minor touch up by re sanding the door applying the stain where needed then applying new coats of varnish.

Paint with acrylic latex. Stain over paint or existing stain without having to strip your old finish. When brushing work on each section of the door at a time and try to mimic the direction of natural wood grain. Apply downward pressure while moving the graining tool across the section at a constant speed.

While the gel stain is wet use a graining tool to create a wood grain pattern. Sand with 150 grit paper. The gel stain is thick like pudding not a liquid. We ve been dreaming up garage door makeover ideas since we first purchased our home and though we ve been making over just about every square inch of our house our garage door was working and in great condition.

I think one misconception is that you have to strip and sand a piece down to bare wood before you can re stain it. If you have ugly stained and varnished doors and trim and you d like to paint the whole works here s the best way to get a good looking result. The great thing about using a gel stain is it will sit on a vertical surface without dripping. Gel stain usually dries very quickly especially on a sunny day.

Apply in the direction of the grain you intend to create. Prime with tinted primer. Apply a thin even coat of gel stain to a section using a natural bristle brush or a soft lint free cloth. However the garage door will need to sit for up to 48 hours to allow the stain to dry completely.

Since we moved into our home our brown painted aluminum garage door had faded more and more. Transform your garage door to a gorgeous faux wood door with this easy gel stain diy garage door makeover. With the oak cabinets the grain was very evident post staining. We ve lived in our home almost 7 years now.

You need to work in small areas. While gel stain does go on thick and sit on the surface of the wood i found that you can still see and feel the natural wood grain beneath unlike paint. Prime with stain killing primer. Sometimes that is necessary but if you have a piece without much of a topcoat sealer poly etc.

Gel stain will not require you to sand the product to a raw wood finish. Our gel stained garage door makeover happened one year ago so i m giving you guys an update. Affiliate links included for your convenience we used a less than 20 can of gel stain to transform our paint faded aluminum garage door. Or you can follow the direction of the garage door pattern.

With water based varnishes re application on outdoor surfaces is a fact of life.