Wood Door Refinishing in San Diego: No Stain Needed!

If you fol­low us on social media you prob­a­bly already saw the stun­ning front doors we recent­ly refin­ished. They made quite a splash! Espe­cial­ly with so many paint col­ors trend­ing, the gor­geous warmth and nat­ur­al charm of this clas­sic wood fin­ish real­ly stood out.

And so, we thought it was high time we dig a lit­tle deep­er into the process.

After a quick recap, we’ll go even fur­ther and share some addi­tion­al insights into paint­ing vs. stain­ing a front door, com­mon ques­tions, and more.

A clear wood fin­ish is all that was needed

Some­times we need to strip away an old stain and apply some­thing new, almost like choos­ing a paint col­or. Some stains are lighter, some dark­er, vary­ing lev­els of trans­paren­cy, and the list goes on. 

In this case, we want­ed to let the high-qual­i­ty mahogany real­ly sing. Here’s a look at how we did it:

• After clean­ing and prep­ping the sur­face we applied a clear first coat, using a prod­uct specif­i­cal­ly for­mu­lat­ed for doors and windows. 

• After apply­ing, we wiped off that first coat so that it would quick­ly dry and pen­e­trate the wood grain in the process. 

• Final­ly, we brushed on a few final clear coats.

If you’d like to see our team work­ing their mag­ic, check out this YouTube Short:

What are the ben­e­fits of stain­ing your front door?

1. Pre­serv­ing the nat­ur­al beau­ty of the wood. Stain­ing accen­tu­ates the wood’s grain and tex­ture, show­cas­ing its unique char­ac­ter­is­tics. You just can’t beat the time­less appeal.

2. Extra dura­bil­i­ty. A qual­i­ty stain pro­tects the wood from harsh weath­er con­di­tions, UV rays, and mois­ture, extend­ing the door’s lifes­pan. Here in San Diego we cer­tain­ly have gor­geous weath­er, but even the sun expo­sure takes its toll!

3. Low main­te­nance. Stained doors require less fre­quent touch-ups com­pared to paint­ed doors and are eas­i­er to main­tain in the long run.

Should you paint or stain your front door?

Like so many things in life, the answer comes down to your bud­get. And your aes­thet­ic pref­er­ence, but the bud­get is the key driver. 

Paint­ing is cheap­er, offers great pro­tec­tion, is easy to touch up, and there’s less main­te­nance involved. You enjoy it, then you repaint it down the road when you’re ready. Straight­for­ward, right?

Stain is a much more involved process. There’s a lot of prep involved, many steps, and it has to be done by a skilled pro­fes­sion­al for the best results. With so many vari­ables there’s just no mar­gin for error. But if price is no object and you want a classy, gor­geous door, stain might just be the way to go. If you’d like to learn more about the pros and cons of each, click over to this arti­cle.

Have more ques­tions about paint­ing or stain­ing in San Diego?

Con­tact us at Chism Broth­ers Paint­ing! We’d love to talk more with you about your project goals.