Saturday, March 7, 2020

Using Plastic Wrap To Help Strip Furniture Paint

A little furniture-flippin' hack for you guys today. 
The problem with blogging is, you read a cool trick somewhere and then years later when you actually try it you have no idea where you originally read the idea and therefore have to commit the blogging sin of not referring readers to your source.  
So don't get your undies in a bundle, I swear I'm not trying to pass this idea off as my own. I know I saw it somewhere....

BUT IT WORKS!

This cute little piece had not only paint, but some sort of stick-on paper.  I know there's technical term for that but opening a new window up to google it sounds like too much work at the moment.  My fingers are flying over these keys and it would break my stride.  It's the stuff you line your kitchen drawers with. CONTACT PAPER! Yeah, that.  After I peeled that off, then I hit the layer of paint. Two layers, actually.


So here we go folks.  Here's what you need.
Dollar General plastic wrap, because there's no need to spend more money than necessary on Saran. And stripper? Yo dawg, I couldn't do that if my booty was in debt a million dollars. (Why doesn't it say "paint stripper"??) So really, I've never bought a new jug of stripper in my life.  If you hit up those estate sales where the adult kids are selling everything grandpa saved for the last sixty-eight years in that perfect work shop in his basement, you can get things like stripper for a quarter.  Sometimes free, if the metal on top is rusty like this one. Same goes for metal scrapers. 


So after you pour the stripper and spread it over the area you want stripped, cover it all in saran  Dollar General Clear plastic wrap and let it sit for fifteen minutes.  I have no idea how long I let it sit actually.  But people like an exact number when reading tutorials because they're brains are wired differently than mine so I'll say fifteen. It doesn't have to be perfectly smooth or anything, just so air isn't getting on it.


By now it should be a goopy mess, kinda like the slime that your kid made in the guest bathroom which you didn't discover until you needed the corn starch which you found after turning the house upside down, in the bathtub, where slime has spread out all over and is seeping down the drain....

So just take a metal scraper and start sliding that stuff off like jello.  I keep an old cottage cheese container or something in my other hand to scrape it into, and a rag handy to clean off the edge of the putty knife.  (Putty knife, scraper, credit card, whatever straight edge it is you're using).


The problem I always run into (and I'm still not sure of the best way to deal with it) is all the paint that can seep down into the cracks of the wood.  Sometimes it REALLY seeps in, and even sanding the daylights out of it, doesn't always get it all. I tend to slap an appealing title on it like "beautiful imperfections" or "character in the chaos". Oh wait, is that the name of some book trying to tell me that my kids not having the perfect pinterest party and me showing up at school with disastrous hair means I'm actually an AMAZING mom and it's OKAY not to have it ALL together???  Whatever.  It actually means I'm being lazy and REALLY DON'T WANT TO SPEND SEVEN MORE HOURS on this cute little piece of furniture!!


Seriously though, ISN'T IT CUTE?!!!!!  And for me, the best part is I didn't have to get different knobs for it!  Notice I didn't say "new"knobs... cuz I don't do "new".  Ever. I loved these crystal knobs and how they show off on the fresh coat of black.  And that imperfect gorgeous wood top is just my thing.  

Now, if you like this idea, here's an image for you to pin on your Pinterest board.  And please do, because I think I spent the same amount of time making this graphic as I did taking the paint off the top of that little antique cabinet.


Thanks for stopping by, and let me know if you've ever tried this!

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3 comments:

  1. Yeah, this is a great idea - I've been stripping paint off of the brick piers of my house, which works, but is SLOW. I'm gonna try this just as soon as the weather allows.

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  2. As I type the I'm stripping and oak buffet using this method. Works like a charm.

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