Staining Interior Doors

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We've been trying to work hard up at the Momplex, finishing up the other side.  It's been a struggle with a new baby. Baby usually wins, resulting in not much getting done on the second Momplex unit.

There is a lot of baby talk getting done.  

And here's one thing we finally did get done up at the Momplex: Interior Doors!

I remember back when we built our house, and stained the doors.  We just stained the doors and hung them.  I always meant to get to adding a clear top coat.

Well, you can guess what happened next.

A then baby Grace rubbed toothpaste all over the bathroom door, so now I needed to sand the dried toothpaste off and restain the door, and then clear coat all of the doors.

Yeah, that didn't happen right away, and she got to her bedroom door with crayons.  

Fast forward to today, and pretty much every door in my house needs to be sanded, re-stained and top coat applied.  All because I skipped that extra protective step of adding a top coat right away.

So this time, we did things right.

We purchased prehung pine unfinished doors from our local home improvement store.

We took the doors off the jambs (you can see the jambs in the background).  Then we lightly sanded the doors with fine sandpaper, working to remove any marks, rough patches, and even out the sanding.  

Then we vacuumed all the sanding residue off, and started staining.  We used RustOleum Wood Stain in Early American.  It's a one coat - so no pre-stain is required.  

You just brush the stain on,

And wipe it off with a rag.  

It's a good thing the staining process was so simple, because we had eight doors to do, with two sides on each door. 

Once the stain was dry, we applied top coat.

We used RustOleum Polyurethane in a satin interior. 

In between each coat of poly, we sanded with fine grit sandpaper - I'm using 600 here for the final coat of poly.  Three coats are recommended.

It took us several days to finish the doors because of dry times between coats.  

Once the doors were dry, we reattached the hinges back on the doors and jambs,

And then slid the pins back in to the hinges - the door is all back together now!

I'm going to have to do something about those brass hinges .....

Now on to the doorways!

We want the floor to float under the doors,

So the doors are set up on shims when installed.  This will allow the floor to expand and contract under the door.

We'll again be using the door hangers, like we did on the first Momplex unit.

The door hangers worked really well and made door installation so easy.

The hangers just get screwed to the outside of the jambs,

And then at the doorway itself, you mark a level line down the hinge side of the doorway -

And then you place the door with the hangers inside the doorway, line up the hangers with the level line (on the hinge side first)

And screw the hangers through the drywall into the rough framing of the doorway.  

Once you get the hinge side done, you then close the door, and attach the other side of the jamb to the wall by keeping the gap between the door and jamb consistent.  If this makes no sense at all, check this post out for more details.

One door done!!!

Once all the doors are done, we went back and shimmed the jambs and nailed through the jambs where they are shimmed into the framing for extra support.  Overkill, I know.

But you get just one chance to do this right, so you might as well shim the doors.  You won't regret it.

Well, at least not until you start cutting all those shims off.

With the doors done, the design scheme for this side is really coming together!  We'll be adding crisp white trim around the doors and baseboard so the rustic door really pops in the room.  

What do you think?  Have you stained doors before?  Have you used the door hangers? We'd love to hear your side too!