How to Make Your Iron Doors Look Like Wood

Iron doors are typically beautiful, but some homeowners still prefer the warm look of wood. And while you cannot expect the same kind of protection iron doors can give from wooden ones, you can now recreate that warm wooden look on your iron doors through a simple graining procedure.

Most iron doors are actually made of steel, or the type of iron alloy that has around 0.02% carbon content. If you want the feel of wood but the strength of iron, choose a four or six panel door. This way you would be able to replicate the exact look of a wooden door.

To do this you will need the following tools: 2.5-in latex application brush; 4-in chip brush for dry brush dragging or a graining tool; and liner brush. You will also need the following materials: primer/base coat; gel stain; and polyurethane varnish.

First, apply the base coat with the latex brush. You must make sure that the whole door is covered. Iron doors are smooth and they are pretty easy to dry, so your base coated door should be ready for graining in about four hours.

You can now start graining. To apply the gel stain, use washed latex brush to apply the wood stain on one panel first before graining the next one. Make sure that you use a gel type wood stain, as thinner wood stains would drip and run through the smooth surface of iron doors. Drag and rock your graining tool or chip brush in sections through each panel to create the grain. If you want, you can experiment on which looks most realistic and just paint over with more stain if you’re not happy with the results.

Once you’ve done this to all the panels, lightly brush the grain with a dry brush to soften the look a bit. And once it’s completely dry, brush a layer of polyurethane varnish on the door. This will protect the stain from sun and rain. Make sure that you’ve coated the entire door as iron doors tend to heat up a bit when exposed to the sun, the varnish would protect the door and door treatment from that.