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!
Kathi says
Love it!
Tabitha Blue says
Thank you!!
Sandro says
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!
Tabitha Blue says
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. 🙂
Palacios says
On the can of Verathane Gel Stain it says it can be used on metal.
Pam Hanson says
How did you stain the very top of the door that creeps inside the upper part
Carrie says
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!!
Susie says
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
Susie says
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.
Marie says
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.
Teresa says
How long has it been now since you gel stained your garage door and how’s it holding up?
Tabitha Blue says
It’s been over a year now and it still looks the same as when we finished it! It’s held up well!
Carrie says
Hello, can you tell me how it’s holding up now? I’ve read a few people have experienced cracking, chipping and peeling of the stain after a few years, wondering if that’s happened for you?
Tabitha Blue says
Hi Carrie! We’re going on almost 4 years and the doors still look great! They’ve held up well… no peeling or cracking and we haven’t had to help or touch them up.
Nicole Kanoza says
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
Tabitha Blue says
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
Sandra Jones Nashville Tn says
I just bought a 70s house and I love this DIY project. My garage door looks horrible. I will definitely use your idea.We are working on my ugly kitchen now.. Thank you for the great ideas
Megan says
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!
Annemarie Blue says
Starting this project !! So excited!
Jaimee says
How did it turn out? I’m considering this as well. How’s it look with the garage door open? Thx!!
Tabitha Blue says
We love how it turned out!! And it’s lasted (going on two years now) and held up perfectly! We don’t leave our garage door open, but it’s fine when it’s open.
Carmen says
It looks amazing! I’m gonna try this. I love the colors of your house. What color is your roof?
Denean Roberson says
Hi, I have a metal garage door as well, was your door previously painted or did you prime it?…Thanks!
Tabitha Blue says
Ours was previously painted the color that we just used as a base. The only thing I put on the garage door was the gel stain and it’s lasted SO well!
Brandy says
Looks great! I am tackling this in the next few weeks but quick question… Our garage door is currently white and I’m assuming I have to paint it a more beige color first? Do you have a color you recommend?
Thanks so much!
Tabitha Blue says
I actually think you could start with white as well… but any cream based color would work. We just went with the color that was already on our garage door, and it was a pinky-cream color.
Abigail says
Hi! this is EXACTLY the look I’m going for. I’ m clicking on the product links in your post but it’s not giving the colors that were used, Would you please be so kind to tell me what color(s) and which stain(s) you used for this project and how many gallons you used?
Thank you soo much for this post; it gives me hope I can get the look that I want!
Tabitha Blue says
Hi Abigail! So glad it helps you, and it’s really an easy change to make! 🙂 We used a gel stain in mahogany and only needed a quart to get it done: https://amzn.to/3eGePCY
Andrea says
Can you post a picture of the garage partially open? How did you approach the hinged sections that are hidden when the door is closed?
Dorena says
Did you put one coat of gel or more than 1
Tabitha Blue says
We only used one coat.
Sara Jordan says
Our garage door is not metal, it’s more like a fiberboard of some sort. Do you think this would work on that?
shakir says
Definitely looks like wood from a distance.
Krista says
I’ve just finished my 3 metal garage doors (white) with the Minwax Gel stain in Coffee. Love it. Hope it holds up to North Eastern Canadian weather! I will say I did 2 coats plus some touch-ups. I thought the first coat was enough to give me the wood look, and it looked fantastic from the road. But standing next to it, it just looked like I was trying to make faux wood. I ended up going back over it with the 2nd and even 3rd coats in spots. Now, it is a rich, mostly solid, dark coffee brown with the wood grain coming from the embossing on the door. Perhaps, plain exterior paint could have given the same look?? Probably no difference in cost…3 cans of the gel stain for $60 + tax. This did 3 doors, plus stained a small front porch floor and there’s a little left for touchups. (That looks amazing BTW!) I’m hoping I don’t need the Helmspar vacation that is recommended on the can. Thanks for the idea and process! PS mineral spirits are necessary cause some stain will hit the siding or floor or your hands no matter how careful!!!
Tina Thompson says
Looks amazing, I have read that its best to seal it over your done. Did you seal yours?
Don says
I’m a 86 year old Hippy. Just purchased a very short Yellow School Bus. I’ll be using your method to add “wood” to the outside to make the bus look like a 1940’s something “Woody Station Wagon”. Will use a base coat (maybe Chalk paint?) followed by two coats of Gel Stain. Once done, will top coat with Spar Varnish. Your followers will have to look up two terms I used: “Hippy” and “Woody Station Wagon”. Hope this makes sense.
don
Abby says
I love how the garage door turned out! Thanks for sharing.
Ginger says
If I have dark doors what color would I use
Jeanne says
I was just wondering if you added something to your gel stain to make it runny. I see drip marks on the video and the gel stain I have is so thick I couldn’t get it to flow across my garage door… Total disaster!!
Tabitha Blue says
Did you use a different brand? We didn’t add anything to the stain at all, just applied with the brush and used the brush strokes to create the “wood lines”. It was a thicker type of stain, like a runny pudding almost.