How to achieve a grain effect on interior doors

shilcor

I'm in the process of replacing all our pine stained interior doors with white grained effect ones from Wickes (as they are only £21 each). I also have a couple of half glazed doors, again pine stained but as they are more expensive to get in the same white grained finish (about £85 each) I'm considering painting them in the same white eggshell as the other doors but want to achieve a similar grained finish if possible. I've looked around the web and YouTube and seen some references to using something like a paint comb but wondered if anybody has experience in getting a grained finish on smooth doors? Maybe apply a primer first, comb it while still wet, then finish with Eggshell as a top coat when the primer is dry?

UncleZen

I once did a coffee table in limed oak effect. The table was orignally grey. I applied a base coat of dark cream, then when dry, a top coat of lighter cream/off-white was applied using a tool that gave a grain effect, if used correctly. It was quite easy to master and matched the furniture it was intended to match, and all these years later (10) is still looking good. You can get kits to do this with both paints and the tool (sorry cant remember the name, I could have a look in my loft, where the leftover paint is if needs be though).

ormus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rSZHQkfUFw&feature=related

heres an example.
you can also do combing.

smileygill

Back before Changing Rooms (Remember that? It isn't still going, is it?), I wood-grained much of my woodwork with scumble glaze. There are other types available, but this is the one I used. It's worth doing a web search with "scumble glaze" as a search term; you'll find plenty of variations, tools and examples.

Later, I rag-rolled and sponged it all. Oh, the shame!

just_looking_2

A good few years ago we gave our old kitchen a revamp using ronseal paint n grain. Sounds like that's what you need, not sure if you can still get it, it was 'all the rage'. A Google search should find it for you

shilcor

For those interested, I managed to pick up an unused Cuprinol Graining Kit from a car boot sale for £3 which included a graining tool. I applied the base coat from the kit followed by 2 coats of white woodsheen. The 3rd coat of woodsheen was rollered on to get a decent thick coat and grained using the tool. Very pleased with the results and the doors just need one final light coat now the grained coat has fully hardened.