Useful Tips Of Getting Paint Out Of Your Furniture
You can bring back the beauty of any piece of furniture by removing paint and adding a fresh coat of finish. But if you can simply paint over the old finish, why bother removing it? In a word, the only way to get flawless results is to scrape off old paint. It could seem like a good idea to hire a professional to fix, strip, and polish your furniture. But if you do the work yourself, you can save a few hundred dollars. Here are five suggestions to get the work done correctly the first time.
Prepare The Furniture
Remove the handles, knobs, and hinges from your furniture as soon as possible. Before you start stripping, fix any broken furniture first. After splits have been fixed and joints have been strengthened or re-glued, it's time to choose the best technique for removing the previous paint or finish.
Test The Finish
Test the finish before applying any paint remover. On a small area of the furniture, apply lacquer thinner, denatured alcohol, varnish remover, or paint remover and let it sit for 10 to 20 seconds. Use a rough cloth to wipe it off. If the finish comes off without much effort, you can remove the entire finish using the same product. It is critical to understand that varnish and paint require specific removers, but lacquer, shellac, and shellac-lacquer mixtures can all be removed using a mixture of 50% lacquer thinner and 50% denatured alcohol.
Use The Right Varnish Or Paint Remover
- Old finishes are softened with varnish and paint removers so they can be readily wiped off, scraped off, or sanded. To speed up the evaporation process, the majority of removers include waxes like paraffin. Before applying the new finish, wax can be removed with mineral spirits or turpentine because it interferes with paint and finishes correctly adhering to wood.
- Aluminum foil might assist delay the evaporation process if the remover is wax-free. Cover the area with aluminum foil after administering the chemical, wait at least 30 minutes, and then evaluate the outcome.
- The paint ought to be malleable enough to be scraped off with a scraper. The water-away removers, which don't require scraping or sanding, are some of the best treatments for removing paint or varnish from furniture. The issue with these products is that the finish needs to be removed with water, which could result in the wood swelling.
Remove Remaining Traces
Use a scraper, steel wool, or sandpaper to remove any remaining paint, varnish, lacquer, or shellac residues from your furniture. Don't bury yourself too far into the wood. Then, choose the proper kind of sandpaper to remove flaws and create a smooth surface. As an illustration, finish sanding calls for the use of 220-grit sandpaper whereas medium sanding calls for 100- to 150-grit sandpaper.
Opt For Non-chemical Removal Methods
Old paint can be removed more quickly with a power sander than with chemicals. The straight-line and orbital sanders are the ideal tools for removing any wood finish if you decide to use a power sander. However, you must exercise extreme caution or you risk breaking your furniture.
Look for refinishing kits before attempting to remove the old finish from your furniture. The majority of these kits include everything you could need to refinish furniture, including steel wool, sandpaper, stain, and top finishes as well as shellac, lacquer, varnish, or paint removers.