Painting Raised–Panel Doors
Also see:Raised–panel doors can be hard to paint without leaving brush and drag marks in the finish. These marks occur when the brush touches partially dry paint as you try to blend the different parts of the door together. Use this technique to get a smooth paint finish on your raised–panel door.
The parts of a raised–panel door are pictured here and include the rails, stiles and panels. The door rails are the cross members including the top and bottom as well as the cross pieces dividing the middle. The stiles are the pieces that run vertically including the small pieces between the panels and the two long pieces on the sides. They run from top to bottom of the door to tie the rails, center stiles and panels together. The panels are the inset squares or rectangles. Panels fit into a groove cut along the edge of the rails and stiles.
The door panels are designed to float in the frame as the wood expands and contracts with the moisture and temperature changes in the surrounding atmosphere. Over time this movement can cause the paint film to crack along the border of the panel. Many people make the mistake of caulking these cracks. The best way to fix this problem it to fill the gap with more paint, not caulk. Caulking the crack will only create a cracking caulk problem that will be more unsightly than cracking paint. If you have cracking caulk around the panels in your raised–panel door, you should scrape it off before repainting.
Sand the Door
Remove the door handle to make painting easier. Prep the door for painting by sanding with 120 sandpaper. Start at the top and sand in the direction of the arrows. If you're repainting over latex paint, sand very lightly. If you're too rough with the surface the paint will peel, not sand. Brush or vacuum the dust off the door. To remove all the dust use a tack cloth to thoroughly wipe the surface. This is a good idea if you're using an oil, alkyd or high–gloss paint because these will show any dust in the dried finish.
Paint the Door
Start at the top when painting raised–panel doors and paint each part before moving to the next. Work quickly to finish each part so the paint doesn't dry before you can paint the adjoining parts. Start with the panels and paint them all before moving to the rails. Next do the rails and small inner stiles together. Paint them all from top to bottom and finish the door by painting the long outer stiles. Along with the long stiles also paint the edge of your door. If you are only painting one side of the door, paint the edge that shows from that side when the door is open. For example, if you're painting the outside of a door that opens into a room, paint the edge with the hinges.
Brush the panels, pushing the paint into the corners and edges around the border and then spread it out in a smooth coat following the direction of the arrows. Let the paint overlap onto the surrounding rails, stiles and the center of the panel. Next do the center of the panel, applying the paint with back and forth strokes to cover it completely and then smooth the coat out stroking up and down with a semi–dry brush. Let the paint overlap onto the border and finish the panel by stroking out the border several times with a semi–dry brush to pick up all the excess paint. Runs will develop at the corners of the panels if all the excess paint is not removed.
Do all the panels and then go back to the top and paint the rails and short, center stiles. Blend these two parts together by painting the short stile first with vertical strokes that smooth out the lap marks from the panel and overlap onto the rail. Then paint the rail with horizontal strokes blending the lap marks from the stiles and panels into the horizontal strokes on the rail. Move down the door painting these interior pieces until all the rails and small inner stiles are painted. Return to the top of the door and paint the edge and then down the two side stiles to finish the door. Blend all the overlap marks from the rails, panels and edge into the vertical strokes on the outer stiles.
