Fabulous Finish for an Exterior Door

Beautify a wood door with dye, stain, varnish, and a commitment to doing the process right.

- Peter Gedrys

Getting wood to truly shine means putting in the time—and we all know that time means money. Take, for example, an unfinished entry door. For many people, a one-and-done, premixed pigment stain applied to bare wood, followed by a couple of coats of varnish, is too easy to pass up. That's fine as long as expectation matches effort, but a bit more care and the added step of dyeing the wood gives a better result.

With stained wood, you'll see the grain but it's muddy or somewhat blurred. By layering stain over a coat of dye, you add depth to the color. It means more work, however. For example, the six-light Douglas-fir door from Simpson, shown here, required 22 hours of labor, which included testing colors and making sample boards. Is my process the only way to finish a door? No, but it's one I have tested with success.

It starts with sanding.

After sanding the entire door to 150 grit with a random-orbit sander, it's crucial to sand by hand every square inch with 180-grit and 220-grit paper to bring all surfaces to a consistent feel before adding any color. This is your chance to use a raking light and to run your hand over the wood to find dents, chips, and glue spots that could cause problems during the finish stage.

Be methodical with your sanding sequence. I usually do panels and muntins, then rails, then stiles. The specific order doesn’t matter, but having a sequence does, because it ensures that you don’t miss any spots. It can be hard to see blemishes on the surface of the door, but hands are incredibly sensitive to subtle differences in surface texture. Sand with one hand, and run your other hand lightly over the surface to determine which areas need more attention.