How-To: Conceal Scratches on Your Doors from Animals

If your pets are anything like mine, which I am sure they are; they probably try to open doors and obviously failing they leave nothing but scratch marks. Are you tired of having those scratch marks and want to cover them up without completely painting over the entire door? It’s an easy cheap task to do that doesn’t require that much time. I should warn you now that it is easier to fix regular painted doors as compared to natural wood doors.

First what you should do is sand down the scratched area lightly and lightly sand the undamaged area surrounding it. After you are done sanding, you need to wipe the area clean of the dust. If you do not have the original stain or paint that is on the door then find something close to it. If you are not sure of the color buy a small piece of wood and paint it with the color you want to use and then put it up to the door to match it up. Your best bet would be to buy a lighter stain color to begin with because it can always be darkened. To prevent the area from looking blotchy, dip a rag in thinner and wipe the scratched area. Get a small amount of the stain gel on a dry brush and brush it on the area then quickly wipe over it with a rag. You do this just to check and see if it is the color that you want. You obviously can keep adding coats to the spot to get it to the shade that you want it to be.

I am an owner of a big black Lab and whenever she is outside and wants to come in the house she jumps up on the door and scratches it up. The scratches have just been getting worse and worse so I had to take it upon myself and fix it up. I went to my local hardware store, got all of the supplies I needed such as the paint, gloss, brushes, and sandpaper. While going through with my project I realized that sanding down the door by hand was definitely a mistake that I made. I then went back to the hardware store and got a sander that you plug in and it was only around $20. It definitely was worth it because it cut my sanding time in half and after it was done being painted, it left a beautiful, smooth finish.