“We are greeted by our clothes, we are seen off by our minds” - these words are mainly applicable to people, but if we talk about our home, then such “clothes” can be called the door of the house. It plays an important role: it creates a good impression both of the housing and of the owner himself. In our age of artificial materials, many have forgotten that natural wooden doors have always been in trend and were considered a symbol of reliability. And antique-made things attract people with their sophistication and appearance. So let's look at how to make an antique door with your own hands.
Preparatory work
Before starting work, you should remove the doors from their hinges and place them horizontally on a hard surface. Two stools are suitable for this purpose. Then, using a hair dryer, you need to remove the old paint. How to do this? By heating paint, which will swell under the influence of temperature. Now it can be easily removed with a spatula.
The next step is to seal all the gaps, cracks and potholes formed during operation. To do this, you will need putty, the color of which should be close to the shade of the wood.
Ideally, use a furniture varnish based on beeswax. It is not cheap, however, if you want to make your entrance doors beautiful, reflecting the color and texture of natural wood in its full glory, then you should not skimp on finishing materials.
The final stage is sanding. In order for the paint to lie smoothly in the future, you need to polish it thoroughly. Doing this by hand is difficult and time-consuming, so a grinding machine will help. Now you need to decide how to decorate the door.
other methods
Paneled door decorated with carvings
Solid wood of beech, oak, ash and poplar is aged by chemical treatment. The door is thoroughly cleaned with fine-grained sandpaper and ammonia is applied to the entire surface. It reacts with tannins, causing darkening and brightening of the wood structure. For coniferous species, this method is unacceptable, since such wood does not contain tannins.
You can achieve a dark color and a relief structure of the fibers by singeing the door - the canvas is burned with an open fire of a blowtorch. After heat treatment, the surface is polished. The final touch is varnish or stain. Creating a rare door is an interesting and creative process; it gives you a chance to show your artistic taste and individuality. All methods of influencing wood are available at home and do not require expensive compounds and tools.
Brushing
The beauty of this method is that in the end result it will be difficult to determine whether it is a “fake” or a real rare item. Only a professional can understand this.
This technique includes 4 main stages:
- First you need a metal brush. Choose a brush with a stiff wire. With its help, you need to remove and deform the soft layers of wood. After this treatment, the surface will become embossed, and you will give the canvas structure. This should be done carefully, ensuring that the surface and depth of the structure are uniform.
- During work, the surface becomes shaggy and linty. This effect is not needed, so the wood will need to be tidied up. Here the same metal brush comes into play, only with soft wire. It will not pull out new fibers, but will allow you to get rid of old hangnails. Such work is carried out exclusively along the fibers; in no case do it across, as the structure will deteriorate and the wood will look torn.
- To bring the surface to the desired “condition” you need a soft polymer brush. Use it to remove small lint. We do everything as in the first and second stages.
- The last stage is applying a decorative coating. To do this, use wax-containing oil. First, you need to fill the recesses with a dark shade of oil, and cover the entire surface of the canvas with a lighter shade. If desired, you can do the opposite.
It is important to note that not all types of wood are suitable for such manipulations. For example, products made from birch or beech have a poor structure, but oak or pine doors are ideal.
Applying stain
Covered with stain
To create an original color and emphasized wood pattern, water-based stain is used. This composition penetrates the pores of the wood and reacts with tannins. Penetrating deep into the canvas, the stain lifts the wood fibers and makes its structure more prominent. The colors of the stain allow it to be applied to various types of wood, it will highlight light shades, reddish and black. Apply the composition with a foam sponge or brush. The work is carried out in several stages, the first layer being the most abundant. After it dries, you can sand the surface and paint it again. The finished door is waxed.
Patination technology
This method involves using several paints with different shades. The method is not the easiest, so you will need to follow a clear sequence and rules. The work order is as follows:
- Cover with a base coat of paint. It's best to use a spray bottle, but if you don't have one, a brush will do. The main condition is not to leave streaks or drips from the brush. It will be difficult to achieve this, and some will even say that doing it with a brush or roller is simply unrealistic. Although if you want, you can do anything, you just need a little patience. After painting, the doors need to dry. It is recommended to start the next stage in a few days.
- When the surface is ready, apply the next layer of paint with a different shade. In this case, there is no need to use a spray bottle. Need a brush. It is important to apply the paint in a thin layer. You should not immerse the brush deep into the container, as drips are inevitable. The essence of these manipulations is to draw structural stripes.
- Then we wait until the paint begins to dry, but do not let it dry completely. We create abrasions using a dry rag. As a result, the lower, dark base will be visible through the light tone of the paint, which will give the door a shabby look and the feeling that it has been painted more than once, a couple of decades apart. All this needs to be opened with varnish.
DIY antique door
“We are greeted by our clothes, we are seen off by our minds” - these words are mainly applicable to people, but if we talk about our home, then such “clothes” can be called the door of the house. It plays an important role: it creates a good impression both of the housing and of the owner himself. In our age of artificial materials, many have forgotten that natural wooden doors have always been in trend and were considered a symbol of reliability. And antique-made things attract people with their sophistication and appearance. So let's look at how to make an antique door with your own hands.
Craquelure
The technology for producing deep and small cracks in a painted canvas is called craquelure. Why? Craquelure is a material that creates the effect of breaking an integral layer. Anyone can age entrance or interior doors using this method. If you strictly follow the instructions, the result will be the best.
The first step is to apply the base paint. When the surface is dry, you need to spray the finishing coat (craquelure) onto it. As a result, the components will cause the base layer of paint to become covered with a web in the form of decorative cracks. This will take a few minutes. Oddly enough, but that's all. There shouldn't be any difficulties.
Which paint color to choose is entirely your decision; the shade options are very different. There are no rules or advice here. You can take into account the color of the trim in your home or room.
Of course, there are many more technologies for aging doors: carving, adding metal or wooden overlays, painting and more. But these methods are quite complex. The methods described above will be enough to give your door several decades of life.
Fabric wear
The work also takes place in several stages. At the first stage, the surface is painted, after which paraffin is applied to different areas.
After this, it is treated with another layer of paint. The tone of this paint should be lighter. When everything is dry, carefully remove the paraffin with a spatula. Then the surface must be sanded and covered with stain.
An entrance door with a distressed effect will be the perfect complement to your interior.
Photo
Sketches of antique doors
Antique entrance door
Antique doors
Aged solid wood doors
Beautiful aged door
Beautiful antique door
Antique door fittings
Cracked surface effect in contrasting colors
Oak door
Antique doors
Decoupage of doors
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Tips for aging a door
To own a truly cozy home, in which you can see the beauty, emphasized by the effect of antiquity that fits well into the decor, you need to decide in advance what the architectural style of the building and the design of the room will be.
It’s hard to disagree with the fact that in a concrete or glass room in a high-tech style, a dilapidated door with forged parts looks like an extra element. Such a product will look no less strange in a room decorated in eco-design, cubism, constructivism, minimalism or Wright style. They are created with clear lines and conflict with any signs of pretentiousness that characterized the past.
Wooden objects aged artificially will not spoil, but will decorate the interior if it is decorated in the following directions:
A room decorated in the style of a Russian estate can only be filled with simple, unpretentious interior items
A room decorated in a Gothic style loves darkness, that is, it needs wood that has been specially given a black tint.
A room in the Rococo style resembles royal chambers, as it contains gilded furniture.
This does not fit into the generally accepted idea of antique wooden things, but also, according to the designers, antique items are perfectly combined even with the industrial-urban loft style, which made itself known in the 1940s in Manhattan.
The main idea of the loft style is the predominance of light and unlimited space combined with minimalism and whimsy. If there are modern appliances, mirrors and posters in the same room with exposed pipes and electrical wiring, shabby brick walls and old wooden furniture, the effect is truly amazing.
A brick wall and aged wood in one room look organic
Judging by the descriptions of the styles, for each of them the aged door must be selected individually.
Table: relationship between interior style and door aging technique
| Style | Suitable method for aging a door |
| Russian estate | Brushing, waxing, heat treatment |
| Modern | Craqueling, waxing |
| Chalet | Waxing, brushing, heat treatment |
| Baroque | Patination, crackling |
| Classicism | Brushing, waxing |
| Country | Brushing, applying stain or wax, heat treatment |
| Rococo | Craqueling, patination |
| Gothic | Chemical treatment, stain application |
| German style | Patination, waxing |
| Loft | Brushing, applying stain or wax |
Video: old boards as an element of loft style
It may be hard to believe, but technological development encourages society to actively take an interest in antiques. Increased attention to them is not without purpose; for example, an artificially aged wooden door is especially chic and radically changes the atmosphere in the room.
Source
Antique wooden door decoration
Today, such a finishing option as do-it-yourself antique doors is quite popular. This is not surprising, because this design looks harmonious in any space design. Some owners of apartments and houses prefer to purchase a ready-made structure and simply carry out installation. Others believe that it is better to make such a canvas design with your own hands.
Antique painting of wooden doors
Aging wooden doors is easy. The main thing in this task is to act harmoniously and one by one.
