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How do I make these doors look less orange?

S
last year



Hello, I’m wondering how I can make these (15 year old) doors look more brown and less orange? I think some of them are more ”yellowy” due to the sunlight. Thank you!

Comments (13)

  • arcy_gw
    last year
    last modified: last year

    They are not orange they are wood and that is a color wood is. The poly could be stripped and replaced by something with less pigment. But after all that you could have just painted them white which really seems to be what the house is asking for with it's white moldings.

  • Kevin Roe
    last year

    If they aren't sealed you could go over it with old english.


    https://www.lowes.com/pd/Old-English-8-fl-oz-Wood-Furniture-Scratch-Cover/3344596?store_code=768&cm_mmc=shp--c--prd--lwn--ggl--LIA_LWN_127_Cleaning--3344596--local--0-_-0&ds_rl=1286981&gclid=CjwKCAjwg5uZBhATEiwAhhRLHtAu7BCK1DdYwnP0I1scoP75qf6bhS6wp6papqPs1Pt1OwK4xeM7HRoCU0QQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds



  • PRO
    Patricia Colwell Consulting
    last year

    I think we need a bit more context since IMO the white trim is crying out for white doors but I need to see your living space .

  • tracefloyd
    last year

    I agree, paint them in your white trim color. Anything else clashes with the wood floors. Hit them with liquid sandpaper and prime before painting. They will still look like wood, just painted wood.

  • kandrewspa
    last year

    If you decide you would like white doors, I would just buy new, prefinished ones. Unless you like the style of these doors and they fit with your decor, they're not worth the effort of painting.

  • PRO
    Beth H. :
    last year
    last modified: last year

    the doors look like oak w/a oil base clear coat. over time that clear coat yellows. strip it all off, strip off the stain and get down to raw wood and stain it new. that's how you get away from the yellow. it's a ton of work.


    of course you can paint them. lightly sand to scuff up the clear coat, and wipe w/mineral spirits. prime, paint w/a good wood trim paint like Advance.

  • tracefloyd
    last year

    Why get cheap new doors when these are perfectly good solid wood? What would you do with them...landfill? To replace with similar would cost a fortune. Poster just wanted to know about changing the color. Painting is easy DIY.

  • centvt
    last year

    If you don't want to paint them, you could use an infrared paint remover to take off the urethane, or sand it off. Then oil them instead of using polyurethane, or use a whey-based polyurethane that won't age orange like that.


    Another option is - after getting the old finish off - to use Woca non-corrosive lye to bleach them - it won't make them white, but it would lighten them considerably. Then I would use Woca natural oil to finish them. But you could go further and use the Woca white color oil if you wanted them whiter. The Woca products are all low to no VOC, environmentally safe, etc.


    If you're interested, let me know and I can post a pic of a door I treated this way for our bathroom. It is a Brazilian pine and was very orange - without the added orange that aging urethane creates! I hated it, so I sanded off the urethane and treated it with both the lye and the while color oil.

    S thanked centvt
  • Fori
    last year

    Strip, stain, recoat. Try to find a UV-resistant varnish/polyurethane.


    These are very nice solid doors. Bookmatched raised panels even? Fancy. :) They aren't bad with your floors as is but browner and oakier would be lovely.

  • acm
    last year

    They would look less yellow if the walls were less blue-toned. So another solution is warmer wall color.

  • User
    last year

    There's not an easy way. The proper way is to strip, re-stain, and finish with a water based sealer which doesn't yellow like a urethane based sealer does.

    Don't be tempted to take a shortcut and top them with gel stain. Bloggers make those projects look good in photos, but IRL, this stuff tends to look thick, streaky and bad. And it just sits on top, so it could be prone to scratching off.

  • User
    last year
    last modified: last year

    I agree. Don't use any shortcut methods. No Old English, no "restor-a-finish", no gel stain. Maybe you will luck out, but there's a higher likelihood that you will wind up with uneven streaky results.