How to Strip the Finish From Old Wood Furniture

The first step in restoring a piece of wooden furniture is usually to get rid of any paint or finish already on the piece. I'm going to cover the process of how to do that in this article. By the time we're done, you should know everything you need to know to complete this critical step in the wood furniture restoration process.

First, let's talk about some safety items. Whenever you work with wood finishes, it's important to have a well ventilated area. You want to keep the dust off of your project, and you don't want to breathe in any particles in the air that come off the furniture piece.

Always use a respirator and safety glasses when removing finish, and make sure you have enough fresh air and air flow.

The process of removing the finish is really easy. All you need to do is go from the easiest thing to the hardest thing. By the easiest, I mean we're going to start out wherever the finish looks weakest. Look for flaky paint, stripping finish, and other signs of wear and tear. Wearing your safety glasses and respirator, take a wire brush, and scrape off anything you can with it. Don't worry about getting everything at this point, just get off the easy stuff.

When you've gotten everything you can with the wire brush, use an air compressor or canned air to spray down your piece. You want to get off any dust particles that might accumulate on the surface after you finish.

Once you have a nice, clean project again, it's time to kick it up a notch. Get some paint thinner on a rag, and rub down your project. If the piece only has a light finish, this will be your final step, but that's pretty rare.

Next, grab a large piece of steel wool and rub out as much as you can. Steel wool gives you a little more access to the fine muscles in your hands than a wire brush does, so it's better for detail work. Get out as much as you can with the steel wool, then move on.

Next, we're going to get into the heavy stuff. Pull out some commercial grade paint stripper or Acetone compound. If you use paint stripper (which I recommend) you should make sure you're using a professional quality. Most of the retail quality won't get everything off. The main difference is that the professional quality has methylene chloride in the ingredients. Again, please make sure you're working in a well ventilated area, as these are harsh chemicals that can hurt you if you breathe them.

Rub the paint stripper all over any stubborn left over spots. Your goal is a smooth, all wood look from your project, with no spots of previous paint or finish showing up. This makes adding new paint or finish much easier later on in the process.

Once you have that smooth look, you're ready to move on. You can now paint, sand, modify, or do whatever you need to do to make your furniture project look great.