Shut the Front Door

Just a quick documentation of the refinishing of our front door. The new coat of paint we got on the inside inspired me to help our long-neglected front door, and various blogs made it look so easy (don't they always?), so I tackled this task on my own. Our door faces west, so it gets the brutal afternoon sun, and the previous varnish was peeling off for who knows how long. First, I washed the whole door. Then came sanding in various grades of sandpaper. My lovely husband also upgraded our door lock and handle, so that we would have the right surface to refinish. I wanted to go for a darker color for more contrast and better matching of our black shutters, but I didn't want to paint the door and lose its wood look. The answer was gel stain in Java, which you can use in place. Two coats of gel stain (each required 24 hours of dry time), and 3 coats of urethane later (each required 4 hours of dry time), here's our before and after. I like the darker color (it looks almost black, but is just a very dark brown) and the door looks much better equipped to handle another Texas summer. It's not perfect, but it saved us some money from a professional job and hopefully will last a few years. Now, of course, it makes the faded and peeling painted trim look in need of a touch-up, and we'll have to have a pro fix a cracked piece of glass. It never ends...

One funny side note: since it took three days with substantial dry time, the door had to be propped open to allow the coats to dry before they could stick to the door frame. The last coat of urethane went on at about 7pm, so we left it open just a smidge until we went to bed that night. While we were watching TV, I heard a squeak of hinges and knew that a cat had squeezed through the gap (curiosity and all that). We brought her back inside and eventually closed the door for the night, but I suspected I would find fur stuck in the still-tacky varnish. Sure enough, the next morning proved me right with a tell-tale fur swipe! Ugh! At least it came off easily and wasn't more inlaid...