Paint A Garage Door To Look Like Wood

I finished another garage door this week.  This garage door was painted to look like wood by another faux painter.  It was a pretty decent job except whoever did the work made the worst mistake you can make and that is they used an oil based product.  The paint cracked and peeled off the garage door in about 5-6 months.  Not very good at all.  You can see the result in the following picture.

You can see here how it cracked and peeled all over the door.

So the first thing I do is scrap and sand and try to get off as much of the previous paint job as I can.  I can't get it all off but I do what I can.  Then I clean the door real well and prime it with an acrylic primer tinted a Sherwin Williams color called Tatami Tan.  Once that is dried I can start to paint on the wood grain pattern on the garage door.  In the next photo you can see where I have painted in the centers to all the panels.  I use a lot of tape when I paint a garage door because I tape off all the panels so I don't get any over painting.

After I get the centers done I paint the wood grain pattern on the vertical pieces of the garage doors.  To do this I tape off so the ends will be nice and crisp. I like to use the yellow Frog tape.  The yellow Frog tape is for delicate surfaces and won't pull up any painting that I have already done.  In the next two pictures you can see how I taped off the vertical pieces and what it looks like after I take the tape comes off.

Nice and crisp ends.

In the next photo you can the difference between the two coats of brown I use.  The taped off horizontal space you can see has only the first coat of brown painted on. I always use two coats for the actual wood graining I do.  That way it gives the doors a much more realistic wood look.  It just creates a richer feel. For this garage door I used Fiery Brown a Sherwin Williams color for the first pass at the wood grain.  For the second pass I used the same brown but with black added at about a 1 to 1 ratio.

The last two photos show the completed project.  You will notice that the angled part of the center panels is darker than the rest.  I like to do that because it does what I call 'picture frame' the panels and that to me dresses up the door with a more finished look.

After the garage door is completely painted to look like wood and dried I apply two coats of a clear acrylic top coat. 

If anyone would like to have the full written instructions to painting a garage door to look like wood just email me at  gatorschott@gmail.com