How to Use Wood Graining Tools on Flush Doors

When you're looking to create the impression of fine hardwood on a steel, fiberglass or composite flush door, you could employ the painstaking approach of using a fine artist's brush to apply every individual curve of wood grain by hand. While there are craftsman who use that technique, most professional painters produce highly realistic looking wood grain using a curved, ribbed applicator known as a graining tool. With a little practice, a do-it-yourselfer can achieve similar results as flush doors, having one smooth surface, are easier to work with than paneled doors.

Pliers
Standard screwdriver
Painters masking tape
Sawhorse set
Water-based primer
2 colors of wood-tone water-based gel stain
Mini-roller with two foam roller covers
Mini-roller with closed cell foam roller cover
Wood graining tool
Water-based polyurethane finish

Instructions

- 1
  Pull hinge pins from door using a pair of pliers. If the pins are tight, gently tap them up from the hinge using a standard screwdriver. Lift the door away from the doorway and lay it across a set of sawhorses. Remove the doorknob using the screwdriver.
- 2
  Use a painter's grade of masking tape to carefully mask off the hinges. Unlike inexpensive packaging tape, a painter's grade of masking tape can stay in place for several days, prevent paint and coatings from bleeding through to the surface beneath, and pull off cleanly when the job is done.
- 3
  Apply a water-based primer using a foam mini-roller. Allow two hours to dry, then apply a base coat of gel stain using a foam mini-roller. The base coat will be dry enough to touch within one to three hours.
- 4
  Flog the just-applied base coat with the bristle tips of a synthetic fiber paint brush. This means you gently flick the bristles against the wet surface, moving vertically down from top to the bottom in a succession of rows from left to right. Flogging creates the impression of wood grain, and it also helps the surface appear slightly less uniform. Allow two to three hours to dry fully before moving to the next step.
- 5
  Apply the second color of gel stain with a foam mini-roller after the base coat has dried.
- 6
  While the gel is still wet, pull the comb edge of the graining tool through the stain in a continuous motion from top to bottom. Comb through the stain in a succession of rows from left to right.
- 7
  Pull the rounded portion of the graining tool through the stain, gently rocking the tool as you move from the door's top to its bottom in a succession of rows from top to bottom. Making a slow, shallow rocking motion as you move results in gentle patterns of grain while making a large rocking motion across a short space creates a knotty appearance.
- 8
  Allow two to three hours for the second coat of gel stain to dry. Then apply a thin finish coating of a ultraviolet-resistant polyurethane clear finish using a closed cell foam mini-roller to minimize the risk of bubbles forming in the finish. Allow the finish two hours to dry, then apply a second coat of polyurethane, which also dries in about two hours.
- 9
  Pull off the masking tape and attach the doorknob. Lift the door off the sawhorses and position it in the doorway. Tap the hinge pins back in place.

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