Sand with 150 grit paper.
Gel stain over a varnished wooden garage door.
Since we moved into our home our brown painted aluminum garage door had faded more and more.
We stained the doors hanging this made it much easier as we could finish both sides without having to wait for the opposite side to dry.
Spread on spackling compound.
Prime with tinted primer.
Our gel stained garage door makeover happened one year ago so i m giving you guys an update.
Transform your garage door to a gorgeous faux wood door with this easy gel stain diy garage door makeover.
Prime with stain killing primer.
I think one misconception is that you have to strip and sand a piece down to bare wood before you can re stain it.
Or you can follow the direction of the garage door pattern.
Apply the gel stain wait about 10 minutes and wipe to remove the extra stain.
The great thing about using a gel stain is it will sit on a vertical surface without dripping.
The gel stain is thick like pudding not a liquid.
So i did a minor touch up by re sanding the door applying the stain where needed then applying new coats of varnish.
Apply in the direction of the grain you intend to create.
Painting over stain steps.
Apply a thin even coat of gel stain to a section using a natural bristle brush or a soft lint free cloth.
Sometimes that is necessary but if you have a piece without much of a topcoat sealer poly etc.
Apply downward pressure while moving the graining tool across the section at a constant speed.
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.
Affiliate links included for your convenience we used a less than 20 can of gel stain to transform our paint faded aluminum garage door.
This is a lot less work than staining the door originally so it wasn t too bad.
Gel stain will not require you to sand the product to a raw wood finish.
At the end of the re application my door was as good as new.
With water based varnishes re application on outdoor surfaces is a fact of life.
While the gel stain is wet use a graining tool to create a wood grain pattern.
Paint with acrylic latex.
Stain over paint or existing stain without having to strip your old finish.
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.
Gel stain usually dries very quickly especially on a sunny day.
However the garage door will need to sit for up to 48 hours to allow the stain to dry completely.
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.
We ve lived in our home almost 7 years now.
You need to work in small areas.