Take a look at this first picture. What I have done so far is to paint the base color on the door. The base color is a Ben Moore exterior low lustre Moreguard paint called Peanut Butter.
Then I tape off the individual panels as shown. (The homeowner had masked off the windows before I got there with paper as you can see. ) In the picture I have already finished one row of panels.
In the next picture I show the first step in painting a panel. I take and paint in the tapered sides of the panel with vertical strokes.
Then I paint in the center of the panel with horizontal strokes.
Then I finish off the panel by painting in the horizontal tapered edges.
I usually go down the entire row like that and even do another row while the first row is drying. Then I do the exact same procedure again with the second coat which is a different color a much darker brown. By the way the first color brown is a Ben Moore color called Pancake syrup. The second and darker color is made by mixing Black Bean Soup into the Pancake syrup color. You can see it doesn't get much darker because I have diluted the mixed dark brown with a clear acrylic exterior sealer.
Not done yet with the panels. To finish off the center of the panels I wait for them to dry and then apply a second coat of the darker color just on the tapered 'frame' part around the center. I call this 'picture framing' and you can see the darker 'picture frame' effect it has in the picture below.
The next step is to paint in the vertical pieces between the panels. So I tape them off like you can see in the picture below. I do the same thing as before. Paint them in with vertical strokes with the pancake syrup and then when that dries paint over it with one coat of the diluted darker color.
Next are the horizontal pieces that go all the way across the door. I tape them off and paint them in the same way. You can see in the picture below where I have painted in the first coat of the brown that is lighter than the other painted spaces. It needs the second coat to look good and give the door a more authentic wood look.
So all done now. The last spaces to paint are the vertical spaces at either side of the door. I paint the door in this manner because if it where real wood that is the way the grain would run. The door came out great and the client loved it.
