18/04 2001

From Stained Glass Design to Painted Wooden Door

original pattern

pattern with grid

finished door

The door from my basement to the garage was painted a barn red. Not quite the color I wanted inside my house. On top of that the door has a small square window in the upper part. So, now what was I supposed to do to improve it.

First I stripped the paint that was already peeling off. By doing that, part of the veneer of the door came off also, shucks. Now I had an ugly, bumpy door.
Well, I gave it two coats of primer and put my thinking cap on.
On my travels on the Net I came across a stained glass design for an entrance door that depicted a calming Japanese Garden scene.
Now, how was I going to transfer this picture onto my door. My freehand drawing skills are not that good.
First I printed out the design on a sheet of paper.Then I drew a simple grid on the paper to divide it into 4 parts lengthwise. Now I created a square grid over the design by drawing horizontal lines.
Now, I drew the same grid on the door with a pencil.
Then I copied the design according to the grid lines to the door. It turned out to be quite easy and simple.
To paint the door I used a mixture of white house paint and acrylic craft paint and a stubby kids paint brush. The reason for using house paint mixture was that the craft paint full strength would be too much color. The white house paint muted the color and also reduced the amount of craft paint I had to use.
I dabbed/pounced the paint onto the door and it gave it a cool effect. Now, nobody can see that the door isn't in perfect condition and all you see is a neat design.