MW English Chestnut stain:

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Thank you, that's beautiful! And I have almost the same handleset!

Kelly,
Looking GOOD there girl!!! What did you use to hang your wreaths? I worry about glass breaking and holes even from the tinest nails. Also those heavy glue "stick-ups" look like they would leave residue on the wood.

Armomto3boys,
sorry about the hijack.
My entrance door is mahogany with glass but my interior doors are knotty alder. We wanted the doors to match the darker streaks in our wood flooring but couldn't find the right tint. So, you might try what we did. We bought our stain from a "mom and pop" local paint store instead of a big box store. They were great in working with us and did about 8 different mixture combinations before we settled on the "right" one. There was no extra charge for doing that and the tint wasn't any more expensive than at a Loews.

These aren't the best pictures of my stained knotty alder doors, but they're all I have right now since we're still under construction.

I used a custom mix of 5 parts Minwax Dark Walnut to 1 part Minwax English Chestnut. The English Chestnut warmed up the walnut, while the walnut made the doors as dark as I wanted them to be.

My door hardware isn't shown in the photos but ours are similar to kellyeng's shown above. We used Baldwin Boulder Rustic with interior egg knobs and I love them!

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kellyeng Where did you get our door?

Thanks.

Hey Kats, I used the smallest cup hooks I could find. I think the hook part is only 1/4" wide and they are gold. When I don't have a wreath on the door you don't notice them at all. I wasn't worried about the holes since the doors are so knotty and imperfect.

Liz, my doors were custom made.

Here is ours right when we moved in... no decorations yet.

kellyeng Thanks. I sent the photo to my builder. Are you in TX? If you don't mind could you give me a ball bark figure on how much your doors cost you.

Thanks again.
Liz

Kellyeng, could you tell me more about the stain you used? When I pulled up the Minwax website, they had gel stain and others. Which one did you use and do you have anything else on top of the stain? That is exactly the color I have been looking for for my alder front doors! THANKS!

Liz, Yes I'm in the Hill Country. If I remember correctly, my doors were about $2k. My builder built them himself. One of the few things he did correctly!

Olliesmom, It's the oil-based stain in the yellow can. Here's the link:

Here is a link that might be useful: Minwax Oil-based

Thank you, Kellyeng!

Are your interior doors stained also?

Very sexy doors Kelly!

Olliesmom - Yes, all my interior doors are also knotty alder with the same stain.

Caminnc - Sexy? Well, thanks!

teach and juddgirl, what color stain on your doors? Really nice doors!

I have just been looking for a stain for the exterior doors and kellyeng's was just the color I was looking for.

We are staining the interior doors of our home darker than the outside.

olliesmom - thanks! I like the MW English Chestnut also, and we're using that to stain our wood floors. Since I wanted the doors to be darker, I used a custom mix of MW English Chestnut (1 part) and MW Dark Walnut (5 parts).

To test the custom mix, I bought the small cans of each stain and a piece of knotty alder (cut into several sample pieces). Using a plastic spoon and paper cups, I made several stain mixes, starting with one part each and working my way up to the 5 parts of Dark Walnut to 1 part English Chestnut.

Then I tried each mix out on the pieces of wood to see which I liked better. Once I found the right mix, we bought the larger quart sizes to stain the doors. After staining, we used several coats of a sealant (with UV protection) in a satin finish.

Our stain is Dark Walnut also. We used it on ours stairs and other details in our house, too.

Thanks! You have made it really easy for me! I will need to see where to get Minwax brand stain.

Thank you all, your doors are gorgeous! And thanks for sharing what you used. I have to pick something today!

kellyeng,do you have any photos of your inside doors?
Would love to see them too.

are knotty alder door expensive

Thank you! We ended up with MW Special Walnut. I also used a pre-conditioner on it.

Here it is with one coat of satin poly. I think it turned out beautifully! They sent the wrong speakeasy (with glass), so I took it off. They are sending the correct one, a solid one.

kellyeng -- Can you tell me the color of the stone you used? Your doors are absolutely beautiful. Have you posted any other pictures of your house? Interior or exterior.

Olliesmom & Teach2007 - Love your Walnut stains!! I'm building a home in Wisconsin and that's the exact color I want - the exterior of the house is Tudor style with cross timbers. I'm planning on doing all my trim and doors in the Walnut and my kitchen cabinets are knotty alder with an English Walnut stain but I'm not sure what to do with the hardwood floors - should I have them stained in a natural, light tone or make them dark like the trim? I'm doing the walls in a cream color....furnishings will add more color, mostly greens, pale yellow and ivory....sort of a French country style.

Momtothree - I guess this is way too late but my stone is tan sandstone quarried in the Texas Hill Country.