What Coating is Suitable for Interior Wooden Doors and MDF

Wooden interior doors have always been and remain popular due to the natural beauty of timber and the exploitative traits of this material. It has good sound and heat insulation. Wood is reliable, practical and durable. However, due to the negative effects of the environment and daily exploitation, even expensive wood species lose their attractiveness over time. Interior door coating is an easy way to renew their appearance, add a fresh look to the interior and create a more comfortable interior. It is important to choose the right paint product for this purpose. One of the best options is an enamel. Let’s dwell on it. First, pay attention to such characteristics as the type of enamel base, consumption rate, covering ability, drying period, colors and gloss degree of the finished coat.

Criteria for choosing enamels when coating wooden doors

Today, the paint products market offers a great number of products for coating wooden surfaces. To achieve the result you want, it is necessary to follow important parameters and criteria when you choose enamels for wood:

1. Consider where the work will be performed – indoors or outdoors. Enamel for interior works should be chosen with the lowest degree of toxicity, and for exterior works, you would need the most weather-resistant enamel.
2. Consumption rate of the product. For softer, more porous wood species, more enamel is required. Previously coated and primed surfaces absorb less product.
3. Durability is resistance to moisture, intensive washing, chemical or mechanical impact.
4. Drying period. Quick drying makes the enamel comfortable for coating outside as well as inside the premises. It save your time, when you apply the next coat of the product.
5. Covering rate of the enamel is an ability to spread evenly on the surface and to cover effectively the color of the previous coating or the base surface.
6. Esthetic look of the finished coating. The majority of enamels for wood have 3 degrees of gloss: glossy, matt and silky-matt. The crucial factor is also the existence of enamels with the offer of ready colors from the plant.

Advantages of enamels for wood

The enamel for wood is a paint product, which forms non-transparent matt, silky-matt or glossy coating after it gets dry. The more polymer it contains the less filler it has and the enamel has higher decorative characteristics. We can refer the following to the main advantages of use the enamels for wood:

1. When the enamel is applied, it increases water repellent properties of the wood, durability and resistance to mechanic and negative weather effects.
2. It prevents rot, pests, mould, fungi and alike.
3. You can coat wooden goods indoors and outdoors.
4. The majority of enamels are manufactured with quite a large offer in colors.
5. They are easy to work with, even if you have no experience.
6. ​​Coated/protected wood has a long-lasting exploitative period.

Types of enamels

Alkyd-based enamels refer to the most durable products. These products are rather elastic and resistant to outer impacts. We recommend applying it on wooden goods, that are used outside or in the premises with high humidity and temperature fluctuation.

Acrylic enamel for wood is the most widely used method for coating wooden surfaces. We recommend choosing a universal enamel for wood and metal TM Maxima, which is intended for coating indoors and outdoors. A water-based enamel has practically no odor, has a perfect covering ability and dries less than for 2 hours. It is represented in a ratio of 20 unique colors, so it will be an important part of any artistic experiments with your interior

Preparation of wooden doors for coating

The volume of preparation work with interior doors depends on what kind of surfaces there will be: new or old. The new surfaces require only treatment with wood-protecting primer. It is the best option to prevent rot, and pests and to improve adhesion of enamel with the base surface and it saves you the finishing product (economy is up to 30%).

Coating old wooden doors is allowed only after thorough preparation of the surface. First, dismantle the door from the doorway and remove all accessories (a handle, lock mechanism and other details). You may leave these details but then you will have to cover them with masking tape. Put the door horizontally for convenient work, then start doing the main part of the surface preparation: clean it from the old coating and remove defects of the wooden base surface.

Cleaning the wooden surface from the old paint

Carry out coating of the door is impossible if you leave any old coating on the surface. That’s why this stage requires removing the coating of old paint or varnish. You can do it in different ways: mechanical, thermal or chemical.

1. Mechanical method is a perfect option to remove the paint, which starts peeling. You need spatulas of various width, a chisel and several hours of work. You can treat the surface with some abrasive tools. This is the quickest possible way. Work with abrasive tools makes much dust, so it is obligatory to protect your skin and respiratory organs.
2. For the areas difficult to reach or if the surface is carved, use thermal way together with mechanical. You need an industrial fan and spatulas. The jet of hot air is directed to old coating (do not hold the fan too close to the surface, otherwise there is a risk of the surface ignition). If the heating is intensive enough, the old paint becomes soft and it is easy to remove it with a spatula.
3. The chemical way means using special treatments that thin the paint. However, we recommend using chemical way only if following all safety precautions, because emissions in the process of thinning are very toxic.
4. If after removing the coating the surface of the door becomes defective (cracks, scratches, splinters), they shall be definitely corrected. For this purpose, you may use acrylic putty for wood TM Farbex. Apply it on a damaged area with a rubber or metal spatula. After it gets dry, treat thoroughly the area with sandpaper. As a result, the surface shall be without any uneven places or parts of dried putty.

Preparation of MDF door for coating

The peculiarity of MDF is its glossy surface. Therefore, coating such a surface without preparation means a waste of paint product, time and money. The thing is that the MDF surface is too smooth and the enamel will have no adhesion and provide many problems during applying. Such a coating will be not durable and long-lasting. Solving this problem is possible only in one way: it is necessary to sand the surface till maximum matt condition and prime it for the best possible adhesion. After this preparation, the enamel for wood provides the highest level of protection of the door surface and saves its attractive look for a long time.

Choice of tools

You will need to coat a brush and a roller. If the enamel you choose is liquid enough, you can use a spraying gun, which makes your work quicker. Usually, it requires more paint products than other tools. If you have no experience, you may come across some problems, such as uneven layering of paint, which makes the paint run. A roller and a brush are more effective tools if we speak about consumption. You will also need a cuvette, gloves, a piece of cloth and a masking tape.

Choice of the color

The choice of the right color depends much on the furniture, the color of the walls and the floor. Doors shall harmonically combine with the interior of the premise. People frequently choose the main colors white, brown, and shades of wenge as they consider to be universal. However, it is not always correct. For example, white doors look odd in dark interiors. Besides, it is impractical to coat doors to the kitchen or the hallway in light tones, because they quickly become dirty.

Modern designers specify three basic groups of tones:

1. Pastel colors – light blue, beige, peach, pale pink, lavender.
2. Saturated dark colors – brown, wenge, cherry, dark blue, chocolate.
3. Bright colors – yellow, lemon, red, orange, emerald.

 

The coating of interior doors in the right color is determined by the place, where the doors are set, and the purpose of the premise. Thus in the bedroom interior, the most frequent are pastel colors. Therefore, choosing white, beige, grey, lavender or any calm and neutral tone for the doors is advisable. Dark colors (cherry, wenge, chocolate) suit the living room. These tones make the interior luxurious and sophisticated. The baby room looks wonderful with the doors colored in bright tones. If the door is set in a playing zone, you may choose several colors.

The process of coating

After a quality preparation of the surface has been done, it is easy to coat it even by yourself. Stir the enamel thoroughly before coating. Wet the brush with enamel and coat first on all elements, which are protruded (fillets, ends) and corners. Then apply the enamel on the flat areas with the roller. We advise you to start from the left upper corner and slowly move to the right. One coat of enamel is not enough, thus after drying the first layer apply the second one but in the contrary direction. Don’t forget before applying a subsequent coat make sure that the previous one is completely dry. Usually, it takes about 2-3 hours for acrylic enamels and 12-24 hours for solvent-based enamels. When one side of the door surface is completely dry, you need to turn the door on another side and repeat the same procedure.

What product can be used for coating interior doors is an important question, which every owner of a flat or house has. If you want to change the look of your room, coating the doors is a perfect option. The main thing is to find the correct paint product and follow all necessary rules for the preparation of the surface and applying. Let your doors will always have a brand-new look!

08.12.2023