Transform your garage door to a gorgeous faux wood door with this easy gel stain DIY garage door makeover!
We’ve been dreaming up garage door makeover ideas since we first purchased our home, and though we’ve been making over just about every square inch of our house, our garage door was working and in great condition. It just wasn’t a style we liked, in fact, I wanted a wood garage door.
You guys, wood garage doors are expensive! So with a wee bit of time on our hands, and a little bit of research, we decided to DIY our own garage door makeover with gel stain to make it look like wood.
No new garage door, no expensive installations, no crazy overhaul. Just a few dollars and a couple of hours, and we had ourselves the look we wanted at a FRACTION of the cost.
Tips for a DIY Garage Door Makeover and how to Gel Stain a Garage Door to Look Like Wood
Choose the right stain color.
We’ve been adding small wooden accents to our house, little by little. As we’ve been painting our home a creamy white color (Swiss Coffee by Behr to be exact), we’re also adding in some black details, like on our front door makeover, and wood accent pieces. More wood accents to come, btw! I wanted our garage door to match the wood we’ve already been adding, so that was the color of gel stain that we chose.
Since our garage door was already a creamy yellow color, it worked well for a base coat. Most neutral colors would work great for this, but if you’ve got a bright or bold garage door color, you may consider painting it neutral BEFORE adding the gel stain. Part of the process of staining a garage door to LOOK like wood is using brush strokes to allow the base color to come through, just a little, to give it that woodgrain look.
We chose this gel stain in Mahogany!
Clean your garage door first.
Besides getting off dirt, you want to prevent any growth from taking place or from getting sealed in under your stain. Pick up cleaner, wash with dish soap, or break out the power washer. Then just let dry thoroughly before you get started.
Select a cheap brush!
The GREAT part of this garage door makeover, is that it’s super cost-effective. If you’ve got some old paint brushes laying around, those would be perfect to use for this project. Or you can grab a couple of cheap, hard bristled brushes from your local home improvement store. A medium width chippy paint brush is perfect (and less than $2!).
They key here is to not spend very much on a great, high-quality brush, because you really don’t need it… you want there to be brush strokes in the stain to give it a wood-grain look. And I just threw away the one I used when finished with this project.
Mind your light.
Since you’re applying gel stain and want to be able to move it around a little while letting the brush strokes show through, you don’t want it to dry as soon as it touches a hot metal garage door that’s been baking in the sunlight.
It’s best to choose a time of day that you can work in the shade, for us, the morning was best as the door was much cooler, and we still had shade to work in.
Apply in sections.
For the same reason we apply the stain in the shade, we also want to work in sections, because it will dry fairly quickly. If your garage door already has squares, this makes it nice and easy. Otherwise, just create your own sections.
For the squares, apply the stain in the indentations of the panels (it actually looks better to have it darker and a little more shadowed in this area and I wish we did more of it), and then brush across the entire panel horizontally. You want to extend the brush stroke so that you’re feathering out beyond the square so that it doesn’t leave any hard lines and instead you get a continuous wood look.
Add fun garage door accents.
To complete the look, we added in this black rustic garage door hardware to complete the look. The great thing is that there are even magnetic accent pieces you can add… no drilling needed!
Pro Tip: Gel stain can be hard to remove from your hands. Wash your hands with water and cooking oil and watch the gel stain peel off easily.
For kicks, below is a look at the front of our house when we bought it, and then with our current updates for curb appeal and the DIY wood garage door makeover!
Love it!
Thank you!!
Hi Tabitha, Great post! Question, I’ve been told at Lowes that the wood stains aren’t for metal garage doors/ won’t last long against the elements (winter, summer, rains etc.). Is your’s a wooden garage door? Thanks!
You’re right, it’s not a stain that is MADE for metal… but for us, it worked GREAT!! And ours is a metal door, and in Florida, we get lots of rain and crazy weather and it’s holding up well for us. 🙂
[…] Ever since we relocated our laundry area from what is now the kitchen pantry to the garage, I’ve been waiting to makeover the space into a well planned out, family-friendly laundry room and have had TONS of laundry room ideas floating through my head and Pinterest pages! I do say room loosely because it’s more of a portion of our converted garage – the portion left over from the extra room we built in the garage and the workroom we left behind the actual garage door. […]
[…] Ever since we relocated our laundry area from what is now the kitchen pantry to the garage, I’ve been waiting to do a contemporary laundry room makeover so the space could be a well planned out, family-friendly laundry room. Luckily, I have TONS of laundry room ideas floating through my head and Pinterest pages! I do say room loosely because it’s more of a portion of our converted garage – the portion left over from the extra room we built in the garage and the workroom we left behind the actual garage door. […]
Hi! I had a few questions because I want to do the exact same thing!!
-What is the color of stain. I love the java gel stain by general finishes – looks similar.
-Did you stain between the door panels? When you open the garage do you still see the yellow on the sides of the door panels?
Thanks!!
It looks awesome. I am going to surprise my Husband and do this myself. And am going to do all my Shutters the same way.We love the Wood Look. As our home is Really County.Thank you for a Great Idea. Susie
It looks awesome. I am going to surprise my Husband and do this myself. And am going to do all my Shutters the same way.We love the Wood Look. As our home is Really County.Thank you for a Great Idea. Susie.
It looks awesome. I am going to surprise my Husband and do this myself. And am going to do all my Shutters the same way.We love the Wood Look. As our home is Really County.Thank you for a Great Idea. Susie.
How long has it been now since you gel stained your garage door and how’s it holding up?
It’s been over a year now and it still looks the same as when we finished it! It’s held up well!
Looks great!? What brand gel stain did you use and what color was it? I want to do my garage door exactly like yours!
Thanks
Nicole
Thank you so much! This truly made such a difference to our curb appeal! We used this gel stain in the Mahogany color: https://rstyle.me/+DrLVQbA5YBmhyGlirdAM0w
Hi there! I notice you used to have a lock/handle in the center of your old garage door. Is it still there? If not, how did you hide where it used to be? I love this!
Starting this project !! So excited!
You didn’t mention it, so I’m assuming you didn’t apply any sort of top coat or sealer? I’m worrying about how long it will last also. Does the stain seem to scratch easy, like if you brush up against it with something?
Hi there! Can you explain what you did to address the areas in the fold? I can’t imagine it would look great left unstained bc when you open the door you’d see the previous colors. Thank you for your help!
Hello! We didn’t worry about it, because it’s rarely open and when it is, it is up in the ceiling of the garage. If you’re worried, you could open it partially after you do the front and address the top and bottom of each section to insure it would be the same color as it opened.