I recently started a long-overdue project that I’ll be sharing with you guys very soon. It’s a white side table I’m currently DIYing.
I bought the side table years ago from one of my favorite thrift stores. I no longer wanted the side table/nightstand to be white anymore which required me to strip the piece of furniture.
Here’s what the side table looks like now, after stripping using this technique!
I left a little white paint on the doors because I liked the way it looked.
Stripping paint from wood and furniture is such a pain in the butt. Ask any DIYer who has done it before, and I guarantee they’ll tell you the same thing.
However, there are a few tricks I’ve learned along the way that makes the whole stripping paint from wood and furniture process so much easier!
I’m going to share with you the absolute best way to strip paint from wood and furniture!
Like I said the nightstand had been painted white before I bought it and as time went on the color got dingy and just didn’t quite look right to me anymore.
For a long time, the side table/ nightstand sat in random places throughout my house. Being used as a random catch-all I never really knew what to do with it. Regardless of that fact, I still couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it.
I’m a bit of a hoarder and have a hard time parting with things. All I can think is, “what if I get rid of it, and then one day I regret it?”
Are any of you guys like that too, or is it just me?
The table is also solid wood, and other than the paint job there’s nothing wrong with it.
It is a sturdy piece of furniture, solid wood furniture is always a keeper in my book. However, the paint had started to chip in some areas, but not in the cute chippy rustic farmhouse style looking way.
More specifically, it looked like it was trying for that chippy rustic farmhouse style look but failing miserably. Instead resulted looking just old and dingy.
As I took a closer look at the top where the paint had chipped off I could see the natural wood underneath and it was soooo pretty!!
Seeing hints of the gorgeous natural wood made the impending task of stripping the paint from the wood necessary at that point.
I’ve really been on a natural wood look kick lately.
To clarify, I still really love painted furniture. However, natural wood furniture and accents are a look that (in my opinion) will never go out of style. And looks good with pretty much any home decor style. Particularly with solid wood pieces, like this side table.
Why ever in the world would anyone want to cover it up with paint?!
Now, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty process of exactly how to strip paint from wood and furniture.
There are a few things you’ll need for this paint stripping project, the good news is it’s a fairly inexpensive DIY project.
Many of the following materials you’ll likely already have on hand in your home. However, there will be a couple of things you’ll need to get.
Materials:
- paper towels or rags
- squirt bottle
- newspaper, tarp, or dropcloth
- grocery bags (for collecting)
- gloves
- old paint brush
- saran wrap
- paint scraper or spackle
- steel wool
- CitusStrip
- Mineral Spirits
- Sandpaper
- Sander (optional)
- breathing mask (optional)
The materials list above is probably pretty much what you expected with the exception of a couple things.
The saran wrap and the steel wool are the secret sauce to successfully strip paint from wood and furniture. I’ll go into more detail on how we’ll use this in a bit.
First, let’s cover the setup for this paint stripping process.
Luckily, the chemicals we’re using are not very strong smelling. As a result, I was able to strip the paint in my living room.
Having said that, if available, I highly recommend using a well-ventilated room or a place outside instead.
After all, it is still chemicals we’re working with here.
Lay down your tarp and place your piece on top that you’re going to strip paint from.
If there is any hardware like knobs and hinges remove those and set aside. Put on your gloves and optional mask and grab your old paintbrush and the CituStrip. Next, pour a generous amount on a section of your painted wood, and as best you can evenly coat that section in the CituStrip.
Repeat this process until all the parts are covered that you’re wanting to strip paint from.
Important Note: In this instance, less is not more. Be generous with your Citristrip, and apply think coats evenly throughout. Keep in mind the size of your piece you’re stripping when deciding what size of Citristrip to buy. If you don’t buy enough and run out halfway through, this will really slow down the process.
After your wood is covered in the Citristrip, quickly wrap your entire piece in the Saran Wrap. The saran wrap needs to be as airtight as possible, any parts of the wood that has been lathered in the Citristrip should be completely covered in saran wrap.
Next is the biggest trick that makes this technique the absolute best way to strip paint from wood and furniture.
After your painted wood is wrapped up your going to leave it to sit overnight!
That’s right, leave it alone over an entire night. Doing this is kind of like when you marinate food in a plastic bag. Allowing your food to really absorb all the flavors.
Leaving your piece to bath in the Citristrip for hours will allow the wood to really absorb the stripper. Resulting, in the paint to practically slide off the wood.
The next day when you’re ready to scrape the paint off, have several grocery bags ready for collecting and have your quirt bottle filled with water.
You can tell that the piece is ready for scraping when the paint looks crackly, and the Citristrip has turned white. You’ll likely have a few areas that dried up a little because it wasn’t sealed up completely. If this happens, squirt your dry area down with water to dampen.
One of the trickiest parts of stripping paint from wood and furniture is getting the paint and stripper off of curves, and ridges. Basically, any surface that isn’t flat.
You won’t be able to use your scraper for this, so this is where the steel wool will come into play and save your life.
When you think you’ve completely removed all the paint and stripper it’s time to move to the next step.
Use your paper towels or rags and wipe your wood down with your Mineral Spirits.
After I did this, I could see stains still left on the wood but they looked like they might come up with sanding.
Important Note: You need to let your wood dry completely before you try to sand it.
After sanding 3 or 4 times on the areas with the stains, I wiped it down again with the Mineral Spirits and the stains were gone!
There you have it, nice natural clean wood!
Like I mentioned before, I’ve had to strip paint from wood and furniture before without using the saran wrap method. This is by far the absolute best way to do it.
The saran wrap eliminates unnecessary elbow grease and heavy-duty scraping and sanding.
I haven’t figured out if I want to leave it like this or add some sort of decorative design yet to make it more interesting. But I’ll be sharing the final result with you guys as soon as it’s finished.
I hope you guys found this post helpful. If you enjoy my posts I’d really appreciate you sharing my content and pinning my photos!
If you have any questions or more tips on stripping paint from wood and furniture leave them in the comments below.
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