About nine months ago we acquired this gorgeous 9’ solid mahogany front entrance! It replaced an ugly standard builder’s 8’ metal door.
I love this door in so many ways. The extra foot is exactly what our entrance needed to make an impact from the road. Plus the morning light is just lovely when it comes streaming through the glass.
It needed to be refinished when we got installed but shortly there after the weather turned cold. I had to patiently wait for the long winter months to end and for the return of some warmer days.
SPRING ATTEMPT: In the spring I made an attempt to refinish the door myself. IT DIDN’T GO SO WELL :( I tried to lightly sand down the old faded finish. I thought that would be enough to allow me to reapply a fresh coat of stain. It’s didn’t work. The stain never penetrated the wood and only sat on top of the old stain/lacquer/polyurethane??? Needless to say, I was pretty bummed about it and it looked awful.
SUMMER ATTEMPT: Okay it’s blazing hot outside in this South Carolina August heat and probably not a good time for our front door to be open but Friday night I got a wild hair to tackle the front door yet again. This time I recruited my hubby to help in the process.
In this photo, we have gone through 2 cans of stripper and will need one more can before it’s completely down to bare wood. I really hate doing prep work. I just want to start applying the stain. {that’s probably why I’m doing this whole process over again? Ya think???}
Oh NO, a storm came upon us on Saturday late in the day and we quickly had to cover the entrance in plastic. It rained and rained all night long. On Sunday there was so much moisture/humidity in the air that we decided to wait.
Check back soon as I hope to have my front entrance back in working condition.
Carrie