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Tim Puro writes:

Groop,

I have a painted door challenge for a client that lives in
a 1920's Spanish/Moorish house in Indianapolis.  All
his interior doors have original decorative painting on
the side that faces the hallways. (The house is designed
around a large center hall on each of the two floors.) 
The decorative painting on the interior doors is in good
shape but the decorative painting on the entry door has
faded.  It appears that the door was first textured with
gesso or plaster, then it was painted a coppery base
color.  On top of the base color decorative painting
was applied and then over decorative paint a layer of
glaze was applied followed by a coat of varnish.  The
decorative paint has faded and is only really visible
under strong light.

My client wants to revive the color on the exterior door
if possible. Any ideas on how to approach this project?
Why did the color on the entry door fade but not the
color on the interior doors?  Did the polychrome
designs react with the bronzing powder in the base
layer?

Any suggestions you could provide would be
appreciated.

Tim Puro
Monroe Furniture Restoration
Bloomington, Indiana

Here is an example of a painted interior door.



Here is the entry door under a bright work light:



Here is a close up of a portion of the door.:






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