Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

How to Strip Painted Wood

how to strip painted wood

In my last post, I confessed that I am a Jane Austen fan girl.

Well, today, I’m confessing that I’m also a Miss Mustard Seed fangirl.

Specifically, I love her signature two toned furniture look – painted base with a stained top. It makes my heart sing.

The stained wood adds some masculinity to antique pieces that may otherwise look quite feminine when painted. And since I live in a house of men, well…

I painted the base and refinished the top of this two-toned table for my antique booth, and it was so beautiful in real life.

And the infamous bookshelf dresser also had a stained top and painted base.

But if the top is already painted, stripping it can be a pain in the patootie. So I generally try to avoid it.

I have, over time, however, tried stripping a few painted pieces. And through trial and error, I’ve learned a few lessons that make the process go a bit more smoothly. So when I decided to take this old nightstand…

2015-04-18 13_08_24 and redo it with a stained top and painted base on this old nightstand…

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I took a few pictures of the process.

Tips for Stripping Painted Wood

Use the right supplies. I like to have the following on hand when stripping wood:

CitriStrip Stripping Gel
plastic wrap (I’ll explain later)
spray bottle
rubber gloves
old toothbrush
old paintbrush
putty knife
old socks
trash bag/can/box

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When all of your materials are ready, apply a thick layer of the stripping gel to the surface you want to strip. Do NOT use a foam brush. It WILL disintegrate because of the stripping gel.

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Cover the surface with plastic wrap. The stripping gel only works while it’s wet. The plastic wrap keeps it wet longer, allowing it to break up multiple layers of paint. Doing it this way will seriously cut down on the amount of stripping gel and time needed to get the paint off.

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After a few minutes, you can wad up the plastic wrap and use it as a rag to wipe off the paint!

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At this point, break out the scraper. Wrapping the end with the old sock, scrape the remaining paint, moving in the same direction as the grain.

Repeat the process if needed, using the toothbrush to get into smaller areas. Try using the water bottle to spray stubborn spots and scrub the paint.

When all the paint is gone, wash the stripping gel residue off the piece, and stain to finish!

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Here’s the full before and after (feel free to pin it so you can find this tutorial again when you need it!)

two-toned nightstands

One-of-a-Kind Letter Shelves for my Boys’ Room

diy letter shelves I’m really bad at tutorials for DIY projects. And I’m bad at following them. I’m much more of a “figure-it-out-as-you-go” DIYer.

And this project definitely falls into that category. File it under the labels No Tutorial and Trial and Error.

I think of it sort of like Legos. You can buy the super expensive kit and follow the directions to build something really cool. Or, you can design and build your own creation (as my boys call it) that is unique, one of a kind, and not exactly replicable, the way Master Builders do.

I like to think of myself as a Master Builder. Except my woodworking skills and (lack of) attention to detail would make Norm Abram cry.

(Sorry, Norm.)

Anyway, that was a long way of saying that I do NOT have a tutorial for this project, just some general guidelines and inspiration pictures.

Materials for DIY Letter Shelves

Pallet wood (and Sawzall/Reciprocating Saw to take the pallet apart)
1/4 inch plywood
Jig Saw
Finish Nailer (Campbell Hausfeld CHN10499 2-in-1 Brad Nailer/Stapler )
Wood Glue
Measuring Tape
Straight Edge

letter I shelf

The I Letter Shelf was definitely easier to build than the A, so we started with that one. I drew an I on 1/4 inch plywood and cut it out with the jigsaw. Then, we used pallet wood to build the sides of the shelf.

pallet wood shelf Little boy's room with dark walls

Tip: The easiest way to tear apart pallets is to have your husband do it for you. He likes to use the sawzall and cut right through the nails.

working with pallet wood

My friend and I measured and cut the pallet wood to fit the shape of the I, then glued and nailed the frame together. 2015-02-21 14_00_49

Then, we attached the frame to the backing with the finish nailer.

how to build a letter shelf

And voila! The I was finished in no time.

DIY letter I shelf from pallet wood

The A, on the other hand, took a bit more thinking. DIY letter A shelf

I started the same way – by drawing an A on the 1/4 inch plywood. I used a tape measure and straight edge, and drew the parallel lines first, then connecting them with the diagonals, measuring to make sure everything was symmetrical. Letter A Shelf

Building the frame required that we figure out the angles. We did it in a super scientific way – cutting scrap wood at various angles until we got it just right (22.5 degrees.)

stained trim and dark walls

I have good news for you here, though. THE ANGLES ARE ALL THE SAME! Once you figure it out, it’s the same for each corner.

pallet wood and dark walls

The shelf is now FULL of Lego creations from my little Master Builder. (I guess he takes after his mom…or maybe it’s the other way around.)

DIY pallet shelf

If you want a real tutorial for letter shelves, it just so happens that Home Stories A to Z has one!

Little boy's shared room

Check out the other projects in this room:

closet makeover chicken feeders forward facing bookshelves

Shared at Home Stories A to Z

Closet Makeover Part 1

AKA: Why There are Paint Splatters in my Hair and Caulk in my Cuticles
closet makeover

I’ve been meaning to do something with this closet for a long time.
I mean, let’s face it. The 100-year-old plaster had seen better days.
The other day, I sorted little boy clothes and came up with 6 garbage bags full of 18 mos – 3T clothes to pass down to a cousin. And with the closet partially cleaned out, I decided it was time to tackle the project.
Luckily, a friend decided to surprise me by bringing over dessert, and I roped her in to helping. We set up a workshop in the kitchen where we cut scraps of paneling to size with my jigsaw .
The paneling was leftover from our entryway makeover. I have no doubt that this project would have been 40 times easier (because it would have require about 40 fewer cuts) if we’d started with full sheets of paneling, but then it wouldn’t have been FREE!

These pictures give you a good idea of what we started with. I know all of you with new construction (or even less than 100 year old construction) are totally jealous of us old house owners right now.

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The closet measured roughly 34 deep by 57 wide, which is actually a pretty good size for a 1908 farmhouse. In a matter of a couple hours, we covered the walls with paneling, using a finish nailer to nail straight through the plaster and into the lathe behind it.

Then, we used 1x2’s to trim out the corners, again nailing them in with the finish nailer (and my handy dandy portable air compressor .)

One of the challenges was that none of the corners were square, or the walls even straight. The northeast corner was 34 1/2 inches from the mid-board to the top, and the northwest corner was 35 1/2! We did a lot of measuring and a lot of re-cutting to get everything to fit.

It looked pretty rough at one point and my husband was skeptical (which is his general reaction to my projects.) But after trim, caulk , and paint, you barely notice the seams.