Many of us are blessed with builder-grade flat-metal doors that look blah. Don't settle. Make your neighbors think you spent big bucks on a new entry door.

You have to take the door off its hinges and lay it flat for this job. Since you may want your door up at night, you will have to dismount and mount the door several times.

Here's all you do.

Turn your metal door into 'wood'

Materials needed: This technique requires Old Masters paints, wiping stains and graining tool. Many professional paint stores such as Pittsburgh Paint, (248) 357-4817, and Harrison Paint, (586) 268-0808, carry the Old Masters Wood Graining products. Paper dropcloth, medium grit sandpaper, tack cloth, cotton rags, mineral spirits, deglosser, trisodium phosphate, Old Masters Graining Base and Wiping Stain, graining tool, quality polyurethane, piece of plywood for practice board.

Tools needed: Sawhorses, refinisher gloves, natural bristle and foam brushes

1. The day before you do this project, wash the door with a solution of 3 ounces trisodium phosphate to 1 gallon of hot water. Rinse well.

Set up your work area in the garage or wherever you are going to do this job. Floor should be very clean. Lay down paper dropcloth. If you do this inside, make certain you can open the windows for air exchange.

2. Take door off hinges, remove and clean hardware. Put door on saw horses.

It is very important for all work to be done in the direction in which you want the final wood grain. Use this chart to show you the direction of your stroke.

3. Lightly sand with aluminum oxide sandpaper. Use chart for sanding direction. (Do everything on the practice board before doing it to the door.)

4. Wash with mineral spirits and rag, then wipe with tack rag.

5. Apply graining base coat to test board and door with a good quality natural bristle brush. Use chart for the direction of brush strokes. Allow to dry 24 hours. When dry to the touch (about 8 hours) remount door if necessary.

6. Apply the first coat of wiping stain with foam brush. Just dip the foam brush into wiping stain and apply lightly (follow chart). Keep smooth, not blotchy, do not allow lap marks. Coat will take approximately 12 hours to dry.

7. Apply the second coat of wiping stain. This is the tooled coat, so just do one section at a time according to the diagram. Practice your tool technique on the practice board first. Lightly apply the wiping stain with the sponge brush, then press the face of the graining tool against the surface and slide the tool down the surface like you were using a squeegee on glass. By changing the pivot point of the tool you change the pattern. Make knots by rocking from the center to the bottom, then back again.

8. When wood-graining is complete, let dry for 20 minutes then stroke lightly with a dry brush to soften the design.

9. Allow to dry for at least 12 hours, then coat with exterior polyurethane that has UV absorbers. For the interior side use Old Masters Satin Polyurethane.

10. Install hardware and mount the door. Now brag about it.