Exterior Door Stained
After getting solid advice from several readers and other houseblogs, we took the plunge Sunday and stained our new exterior front door.
This photo is actually before it was fully stained (two coats) and wiped down...it doesn't look so splotchy now as it did here. There did turn out to be a few unusual dark spots we can't quite figure out though. I'm guessing something might have dripped on the door in one place during the several months we had it sitting in the basement unfinished. Hopefully the imperfections will just come across as character... :-)
There's definitely something nerve racking about that time when you first start staining new wood. Kinda like painting, part of it is you never really know how it's going to look until it's on there. Unlike paint, though, it seems more "permanent" for some reason when it's a stain. Working on an expensive door where you only get one shot at doing it right certainly contributes to the mood.
Next up? I need to mix up another batch of shellac, pick up some spar varnish (thanks for the suggestions, everyone) and set a timetable for installing the thing. Oh yeah...we need to pick out our final choice of door knobs. Any suggestions?
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Comments
Get a fancy euro doorknob. I like this one and this one. But these might fit your house better.
Posted by: Lukas | October 19, 2005 7:50 AM
Aaron: I believe we have the same door- its Doug Fir, right? On my door, one of the panels was alot blonder than the other (it was not splotchy, though). I put an extra coat of stain on the lighter panel so it wasn't so distracting. Yours is a nice reddish color- a house near ours just stained a new fir door way too walnut color, it looks black and awful. We got the lockset from VanDykes- the Emtek hammmered bronze one. The Emtek lock is beautiful, but mechanically has a funny mechanism that 'catches' inside, you have to jiggle the deadbolt sometimes. THAT SAID, you should go with Baldwin for performance.
Don't forget to seal the bottom and top!
Posted by: Carol | October 19, 2005 7:52 AM
Are you planning on taking the door off its hinges to hang it? I'm not a pro at this, but I can't imagine how I would have squared ours with the door in there -- way too heavy.
Posted by: Nick | October 19, 2005 9:24 AM
Um... I wrote a long thing about how Balwin's Lifetime finish is a bad thing, then the computer crashed. To see how durable it really is, take a look at their commercial line, designed for high use and abuse~ they don't even offer lifetime finish on commercial.
I like Omnia:
http://omniahardware.com/
and, if you can afford it, Rejuvination:
http://www.rejuvenation.com/
Posted by: Nathan | October 19, 2005 12:58 PM
Fir is really hard to stain, I know I would never do a dark stain on fir again, it's just too uneven. The stain will take more on sections that aren't sanded as much, so everything has to be sanded to the same smoothness. The door looks great.
Posted by: Derek | October 19, 2005 4:16 PM
here are some kind of nifty door handlesets....
www.precisiondoors.com/estate5.htm
Your house is really looking great! We love the front door too!
Posted by: Deb | October 19, 2005 10:34 PM
stay away from emtek. the locks can stick. go with baldwin or if you really want to do it right and want to be sure someone will back it up, rejuvenation.
Posted by: ams | October 20, 2005 9:38 PM