Replacing and finishing pine doors

Kevin Reid

Member
Messages
84
Location
South East Michigan
I am in the middle of a project to replace all of the interior doors in my house with 6 panel pine doors. My plan is to stain the doors prior to installing them. My question is after staining should I leave the doors with just the stain on them or should I put some sort of protective coating on them? If I should put some coating on them what type of coating should I use? Thanks for any suggestions or advise.
 
I believe a protective finish would be best, but as to what type depends a lot on your intent with the staining. Are you trying to make the pine doors have a more antique pine look to them or is your intent to make the pine appear as another wood. Just a side note here, I hope you are not trying to make the pine appear to be another type of wood, like walnut!:)

Pine has some challenges when you are staining it, it has the tendency to blotch and absorb stain unevenly. It all can be overcome with the right technique. I utilized a method where I wash coated with shellac to control the blotching. I can not remember the details right out of hand, but will see if I can find the direction I was following. In the meantime, I am sure other more qualified people will chime in. Do follow up and give a little more information as to what you are trying to do. Which protective coating you use is really not that important compared to how to stain or dye the pine.
 
If it was me, I'd want some type of clear coat over the stain. We have similar interior doors in our house, and they look like they have been sprayed with a satin poly of some type over the stain. I just finished up a dog gate to match the doors, and used waterborne spray lacquer (out of an HVLP gun). It came out fine. For the trim around the gate, I just used water-based poly out of a spray can. It also matches well.
 
I am in the middle of a project to replace all of the interior doors in my house with 6 panel pine doors. My plan is to stain the doors prior to installing them. My question is after staining should I leave the doors with just the stain on them or should I put some sort of protective coating on them? If I should put some coating on them what type of coating should I use? Thanks for any suggestions or advise.

Kevin, you probably intended to do this, BUT if not, be sure to INSTALL the doors FIRST and check for the proper fit and do any necessary tweaking, (planing or sanding), THEN remove the hinge pins and take the door out apply the finish. You don't want to have to do the tweaking after the finish is put on, and then have to touch up the finish when the tweaking is done.

I like clear laquer because it is easier to repair later if needed.
 
The reason for the stain is to bring out the natural grain in the doors. The stain will be very light. The house has 8 inch pine plank floors and 8 inch plank ceiling. The ceiling is stained but not coated. It appears from the comments that I should be considering a coating for protection and that I need to pre-treat the doors prior to staining to prevent blotching. I appreciate all the advice.
 
wax free shellac works great for pre treating pine or you can just sand the door to around 300. Both will close the grains up to keepthe stains from soaking into far.
 
Kevin, I was trying to duplicate an antique look to the pine I was finishing and I followed the direction that Tom Wisshack used in his Fine Woodworking article "Best Finish for Pine" (pg. 54, No. 193, Oct 2007). He had a receipe for stain to duplicate that antique look. It worked great for what I was trying to accomplish. I suggest you use scrap wood to test and verify the hue and tone that you want. Remember to factor in the effect the finish coat will have on the door color over time.
 
Last edited:
Top