Cedar Doors - Take 2, or is it 3?

Cedar doors coordinate beautifully with the stone face of this house.  They coordinate beautifully with golden labs and retrievers, too.

Didn't I just post photos of a cedar garage door?  Yup, but not this one.  This one is different.  This one belongs to two goldens...

The humans who own this house are super sweet.  The dogs who adopted them are equally so.  Don't tell the humans, but I probably woulda done the job just for Gunner's sweet kisses.

Oh, and it's a bit smaller than the last one. 

Whether large or small, if a garage door is going to be a prominent feature on the front of a house, I truly think it needs to be as beautiful as possible.

It was the summer of garage doors, right to the very end.  Wooden garage doors are currently very much in fashion, and quite spendy, even compared to a pro faux job, if one is to judge by the number of them I painted these past few months. 

I'm not sure Dixie entirely saw the point of my standing there all day rubbing stuff on her doors, but as long as I was willing to let her in and out at regular intervals and pet her, she seemed to approve.

It isn't the most exciting faux finish to do(and certainly not the least), but woodgraining is decidedly one of the most believable. 

Cedar has a wide range of tones, and not a lot of whorls.  It's easily achieved with russet and burnt umber paint, thinned a bit, worked over a golden pumpkin base coat.  Because it's all top quality exterior paint, no clear coat is used.  In fact, most clear products will break down in the sun and peel long before this paint will.

Oh, yes, I did paint the front door to match...

A beautiful front door is the second best way to greet guests.  Two well-behaved goldens and a matching tabby cat trump paint any old day, but I don't mind having my work upstaged.

If you have questions about woodgraining, feel free to leave them in the comments below, or email me at dawnmariedelara@gmail.com

Want to see more of my portfolio than shows on the side of this blog?  Check out theartofthehome.com.

Did you know I also am the Editor-in-Chief (and staff writer, art department, and generally Little Miss Bossy Pants) of a quarterly bookazine, to which you can subscribe in print or pdf?  I am!  you can check that out at 365being.com .