wood front door stain

I refinished our wood door a few times. The original varnish will be hell to remove, I used stripper from Sherwin Williams that has a jelly like consistency, and sanded/ scraped a lot of it off. Re-stained as needed as only the lower portion of my door was faded/bad/caught sunlight and condensation from the windows. Then applied 4-5 coats of Minwax Helmsman Spar varnish. It’s a job, I cut a piece of osb to serve as a temp door, had to remove door to work on it.
Sand and a good exterior latex paint would be easier.

If the finish is not cracked and is just dull looking, a good sanding and then a good wipe down to remove any dust is in order before applying a few coats of finish.

Personally, if dead set on just refreshing the finish, I'd use a marine spar varnish as I think it will last longest before needing attention again-------and it will.

Now, if it were mine. I'd sand it all down, wipe it down and prime and paint it with a top grade semi-gloss or eggshell latex paint and not have to worry about it until you want to change colors.

My front door takes a lot of afternoon sun and is painted with Sherwin Williams top grade exterior latex semi-gloss and looks as good as the day it was painted 4 years ago.

Paint and forget

Paint that bitch now. Youll be fighting a losing battle if you must have stain.

I had someone paint it to look like stain, “Faux Finish” as it sometimes referred to.

I’ve done in in my last two homes. The first the stain was peeling and faded after only one summer. Had it painted and it lasted about 10 years before selling the house. I had it refinished as a condition of selling since it was just starting to chip and peel.

New house I had it faux finished from the beginning. It’s been 2 years now and still looks great.

The front door at our old house did not appear to have a film type finish like a polyurethane/varnish. It was getting dull. I just leaned with murphy oil soap applied boiled linseed oil to give it some life back. It's a finish that you will have to keep up more regularly, but at the same time, it's extremely easy to apply. Literally just wipe on generously with a rag, then wipe off after a few minutes.