How to make a paint job look like wood?

I'm painting my kitchen a beige or baby yellow type of color, and I have panel sliding closet doors that are white. I would really want to paint them brown but don't want them to look like brown, I want them to look like wood. Any techniques I can do to make them look that way without having to sand them down and do a bunch of work? Any ideas would be great! Thanks.How to make a paint job look like wood?
You can buy something called a graining tool that looks like a big rubber stamp on a roller or on a half round block. I'm pretty sure I've seen it at Home Depot, but if you do a search can order it from a specialty store on line.





I have never tried it before, but when I saw it demonstrated on HGTV, they suggested you practice on a board first, do you can get the hang of it and make it look ';real';. They were using the ';rocker'; tool (see link below to epaintstore.com). I had never seen the roller until I did this search (thefauxschool.com)How to make a paint job look like wood?
They sell ';Faux Wood Graining Tools'; at any good hardware/paint stores. I bought one because I just bought a fixer upper and some ee-diot painted all of the solid wood beams in the lower level white! *Sigh* I painted over them in brown and luckily the grain showed through so I didn't have to use it, but there are DIY videos on youtube--good luck!
How about using Ronseal Paint and Grain, the kit comes with paint, a graining tool and a tin of transparent coloured varnish. It does the job well and can almost look like real wood if you take your time and do a good job of it.





http://www.ronseal.co.uk/products/product.jsp?id=42
';do it yourself'; stores sell a roller that prints a wood grain into your paint.
I was going to say sand em.. but you obviously don't want to .. I really can't see another good way... try hgtv.com