I have never seen a home this size with so many exterior doors! There is the front door in the entry, a door to the porch from the family room, a door that goes nowhere in the dining room, a closed off door to the back porch in the family room, a door to the back porch in the kitchen and a door to the outside from the basement landing. I really can’t figure out why so many doors were needed.

Three of the doors originally led to the wrap-around porch. These doors have lovely detail and beveled windows.  We believed that the doors were originally varnished, but painted white along with other trim long ago. We decided to take a chance and find out what removing the paint would reveal.

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The Process:

We sent the doors off to be dipped and stripped of paint then David did the rest. The doors have a wood veneer that had cracked and warped over the years so repair was needed.

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David started by cutting open any warped veneer and then gluing it flat. He applied pressure to ensure that the adhesive bonded the veneer to the door. You’ll see that he used anything heavy that was handy! Once the glue was dry, he sanded the door smooth with a power hand sander.

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Next David painstakingly picked out any paint that remained in the detailed carvings. He ordered a set of dental picks for the task.

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Finally, he stained the doors the same color as our floors and added a marine polyurethane for weather resistance.

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Unfortunately, when we went to hang the doors, we discovered that stripping wood veneer doors caused them to expand. We needed a little extra help to make them fit back into the frame.

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The finished old doors are beautiful. Next to the newly painted trim, they really shine. They aren’t perfect, but that was never the goal. We look forward to welcoming guests through these doors.

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