"If you missed part one of this how-to series you may want to click here and start with Creating Faux Stone Walls before reading Creating A Faux Medieval Door."

Before	After

Last time, our project began on a white wall located in our homeowner's entryway. We created a stone look to enhance a lovely tapestry and set the tone for the remainder of the home's furnishings. But now, our attention is directed to the hollow-core door on the same wall.

The homeowner had removed the door handle, as it frequently stuck and prevented access to the water heater behind it. We did not have a budget that allowed us to buy a new door, so we decided to incorporate the original door - with all its problems - into the period look of the wall. We would paint the door to resemble a medieval wooden slab door, complete with oversized pounded-iron hinges.

MATERIALS

• Acrylic latex paint in black, and a dark and light "wood" shade - you can use leftover paint for this project
• Glazing liquid - this can be found at home improvement or paint stores
• Paintbrushes- a 1"or 2" brush, and a smaller artist's brush for touch-ups
• Low-tack masking or painter's tape
• Pencil
• Ruler or tape measure
• Straightedge - you can use your ruler
• Scrap paper
• Scissors
• Graining tool - you will find these at a paint or home improvement store

PREPARATION

As with the wall treatment, minimal preparation is needed. Clear the door and trim of any debris and dust. If your door has a shiny finish, sand thoroughly and dust. Tape off the freshly painted areas around the door, leaving trim and door exposed. Remember to use low-tack tape or painter's tape, as adhesive can pull the paint off the wall.

Cover the floor with a drop cloth, making sure the area under the door's threshold is covered. Use caution when working with paints - if your skin is sensitive, wear rubber gloves. Consider wearing safety glasses when working on any project.

PAINTING THE BASE COAT

We went through our stash of leftover paint and found two colors, one light and one dark, that would suffice as our wood colors. Please note - the idea is not to replicate the look of material or period, but to imitate it. Don't worry if your colors are not true or exact. Have fun with it, and experiment with colors.

Paint a base coat on the door using the lighter color. Some surfaces may be more porous than others may, so apply two coats if necessary.

Allow the base coat to dry completely.

PAINTING TOP COAT

Pour equal amounts of glazing liquid and dark paint into a throwaway container with an opening at least as wide as your paintbrush. Mix thoroughly. It is best to mix small amounts at a time, using only what you need to finish the project.

Paint the dark paint/glaze mixture on the door, covering the lighter base coat. The mixture will be fairly thin. It isn't important to get smooth coverage, as open areas simply add to the look of the door.

For the next step, you will need a graining tool, available at paint or home improvement stores.

Beginning at the top of the door and moving to the bottom, pull the graining tool through the dark paint, rolling the tool up and down as you pull. Watch the pressure you exert on the graining tool - too much pressure can lift the base coat off the door. If this happens, wipe the glaze off the area, repaint with the base coat, and allow it to dry. Then begin again, pulling lightly through a fresh coat of glaze.

In smaller areas, you may need to paint on the grain lines using a small paintbrush. The graining tool worked fine on the widest area of the door trim, but was too large for the edges. Simply copy the lines of the graining tool into the smaller areas.

Use the small brush to touch up areas the graining tool didn't properly cover. Allow the door to dry for a few hours or overnight if possible.

PAINTING THE HINGES

Now it is time to add oversized iron hinges, to finish our medieval look. Begin by deciding how long you want your hinges, and measure from the hinged side of the door out, marking the spot with a pencil. We chose to camouflage the door's brass hinges by "hiding" them within the painted ones, so we measured 20 inches -approximately 2/3 the width of our door - from each of the two hinges.

The hinge will be wider at one end than the other, so decide on a width at the hinged side of your door. After marking the proposed hinge length, draw a straight line from one end to the other, creating a long triangular shape.

You can make the ends of your hinges as simple or fanciful as you would like. We decided to create a template of a modified fleur-de-lis design for our hinge, mimicking the arrow shape of the tapestry hanger.

Create or trace a half design on the folded edge of a piece of paper. Hold it against the penciled hinged area to check for fit.
Cut and unfold the design and reposition against the door for tracing. Line the pencil marks with black paint, using a small liner or detail brush. Then fill in the lined areas.
Paint the exposed door hinges black, causing them to "hide" within the larger faux hinges.

As an added touch, we painted the inside of the exposed door handle cutout with black paint, and painted a faux "keyhole". The result was a medieval style door that actually made us want to know what mysterious things lay beyond it!

Next time, we will finish off the stone look over an open entry!

Photos by: Cynthea Cameron

About Author

Rosemarie Colombraro will be tackling more painting projects in the next issue of Renaissance.com. She invites your comments at Birdinwhite@aol.com