How to remove old paint from a door and paint it yourself

Gusevsky Andrey Anatolyevich

How to paint a wooden door in wenge color

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

What paint to paint the wooden door is decided at the first stage and after that we apply the dye. You can also watch some points in the video in this article and in the photo.

Painting Rules

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

She can serve you for many more years, if you just 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.

Caution: Painting a wooden door with your own hands is considered the easiest way to repair.

Before painting the old door, experts advise to study the compositions for such staining, which are better to use to get the desired result.

What 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 natural beauty of wood, or a completely decorated door with a completely hidden texture pattern.

How to paint a wooden door white

According to preferences, the following coatings can be selected:

• Transparent and tint varnishes, stains, oil impregnations. They can 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:

• Her color palette is diverse, the price is low. In addition, they consider its important advantages: high water-repellent ability, quick drying, good resistance to sudden changes in temperature. The only inconvenience in its use is a rather sharp and unpleasant odor that does not disappear for a long time.
• Acrylic paints have almost no smell. In addition, they dry quickly, have an optimal consistency for brushing. The wooden surface painted with this kind of paint will be matte. The cost of such enamel is quite high. Additional costs when using it will be required to purchase acrylic varnish, the application of which must be after painting.
• Nitro-paint is considered the most durable and durable. Staining with it should be done outdoors or in a well-ventilated area, otherwise there is a risk of poisoning, due to the fact that its composition is very toxic.

Attention: In the case of choosing paint for interior doors, you must pay attention to their safety. If we are talking about the front door, you should choose the coating that best provides the protective function in conditions of temperature changes, high humidity.

Often, wooden doors are simply varnished or stained, which allows you to preserve the unique texture of the tree. Coloring with their help is made in several layers, until the moment when the color will not look perfect.

Preparatory work - remove old paint

How to paint old wooden doors

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

• Initially, all previous traces of staining should be removed from its surface (see How to remove old paint from wood without problems).
• Cracked paint layers are removed with a scraper or spatula.
• After eliminating them, the door is cleaned using a grinding machine or special paper.

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

So:

• In the case when the wooden door darkened under the paint, it should be saturated with bleach with 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 defects. If bumps and cracks are found, they are covered with a special putty for wooden surfaces (see Hard putty on wood: how to do it wisely).
• Then the door leaf is sanded with sandpaper, all dust is removed from it and thoroughly wiped with a damp cloth. After drying, you can start painting.

Wood door painting procedure

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

• To facilitate work, the door can be dismantled and placed horizontally on two stools, a comfortable surface or gantries. This will help to apply paint faster and more evenly.
• When it is impossible to dismantle the door leaf, it is necessary to block it so that it is easy to approach a convenient place for painting any part of it. This will also help prevent accidental closing of the door, which will lead to damage to already applied and still dry paint layers.
• If there are glass inserts on the door and it is problematic to remove them, before painting, they need to be covered with a film or newspaper, and carefully fixed with masking tape. The hardware, which is impossible to remove, the door lock is also wrapped with a newspaper and fixed.

Caution: Used adhesive tape is peeled off immediately after the painting is completed, before the paint dries.

Painting a wooden door is carried out in several stages:

• An initial layer of paint is applied, which will perform the function of the soil, using a roller. To paint corners and small details using a panel brush. You can also use a spray gun, if any;
• They wait for drying and grind the applied soil layer, then eliminate traces of dust;
• Apply a second coat of paint, which is considered the finish;
• After the paint dries (after a few days), the door is varnished.

Caution: The paint used as a primer should be several tones lighter than the final coating. Only in this case will it not affect the desired result.

• The coloring scheme should be selected taking into account the characteristics of the door leaf. So, the shield door must first be painted across (from left to right).
• After the first layer dries, impose the next, in the vertical direction. Then, after it dries, they are painted in the opposite direction to that which was originally used.
• Panel doors are painted, first with recesses, and only then processed according to the standard scheme.

Stained wood door stain

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

This procedure has its own characteristics:

• First, the wooden sheet should be moistened. This will help the dye evenly spread over its surface.
• If at the final stage it is planned to cover the door with varnish, then you need to start painting it from below. This will help prevent splashes and drops from entering the unpainted part of the canvas. If at the end 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 grind it. Then you need to clean the canvas from dust and apply another layer of stain. The procedure is repeated until the dried cloth acquires the desired color.

Attention: When choosing an alcohol stain, the grinding procedure is not needed. A door treated with such a composition will dry up much faster. However, compared with the safe conventional formulation, it is quite toxic.

How to achieve wood imitation

You can do this 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 a dark color to the paint, wash off the soap.

There is also another method to help achieve a similar effect.

• To play it you need a special brush, which can easily be bought at any hardware store. Soft fibers of a prepared web need to be processed using it with a technique reminiscent of combing.
• Then the surface is painted with different color dyes. When the door dries, it is polished. The application of this method helps to achieve the effect of annual rings on a wooden canvas, since its structure after treatment with a brush becomes different in all areas and the paint falls on them differently.
• Lacquering the door 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.

Caution: Varnish has different shades. The darker it is, the harder it will be to overlap this layer with dye.

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