Inspiration Monday: Shut The Front Door!

I’ve been planning to change the cranberry doors/shutters on the house for a little while, but it took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do. At first, I thought I’d paint them another color like a bold Colonial-ish red. But, in case you didn’t know, my house is two-toned.

Our House, 2008

The red would look great with the gray, but not so much with the tan on the upper half (which is why I believe the builders went with cranberry). Originally, both doors were white. For some reason I thought I’d paint them to match the shutters. I liked for awhile, but after a few years I grew tired of it.  Now I positively hate it! UGH

So I moved on from red and started thinking about other, more neutral colors. I saw this photo in the magazine and fell.in.love.

Image courtesy of Real Simple Magazine

I was totally sold on the black glossy paint until I came across photos of people who turned their fiberglass or steel doors into wood doors using a faux wood graining technique. Check out these formerly steel garage doors:

Image courtesy of Fine Lions

Amazing, right?

I decided to do a little more research to see if this was a look I could duplicate myself. It turns out it’s a totally easy DIY project. Or, at least that’s what I’ve read Since I’ve got embossed wood grain on my fiberglass entry doors, I can use a gel stain to make them look like real solid wood.

Something along the lines of this:

This is the plan, anyways. I’ve already started on step one, and I’ll update you whether I’m successful or not. I figure if it’s a total flop I can just go back to my original plan of glossy black doors (and shutters). But if I like the result, I’ll do everything with this technique. I think the faux wood finish will add more craftsman character to the exterior, don’t you?