Removing Paint from Wood Furniture

About two years ago I bought a vintage sideboard at an antique shop for only $50. Chip and Joanna were at the height of their success on HGTV and farmhouse décor was everywhere.

I decided to transform this sideboard by making the doors look like sliding barn doors with wood pieces that I glued onto the front. Then I proceeded to paint and distress the whole thing. Basically, I went farmhouse crazy on it.

As soon as I was done with this project, I knew I had made a mistake. I lived with it for a while but recently I decided it was time to restore it back, even if it meant the risk of ruining it.

My biggest concern was how I was going to remove the wood pieces we glued on. I couldn’t think of a better option that to try my Furno 500 heat gun on it. I ran the heat gun over the diagonal wood pieces in sections, while gently prying them up from behind while doing so.

I went really slow with this part as not to pull it up too fast and take some of the wood with it. The process was long, but it worked.

When I finally got those wood pieces off, there was a bit of wood glue residue left. Again, I used the heat gun along with my 5-in 1 scraper tool and that came right off.

Now it was time to remove the paint, which I had layered to create a distressed look. Using my heat gun and the scraper tool again, I started removing the paint. The first layer came off so easily, but the layers underneath required a little more patience. One I had gotten off most of the paint with the heat gun, I went over the rest with a sander.

At this point, I noticed the white paint had gotten into the grooves of the wood, leaving me with a pickled finish that I really liked. Except for where the wood overlays had been. I wanted to keep that whitewashed look, so I applied Cerusing wax to those darker areas.

After letting it sit for an hour or two, I sanded it off and blended it with the rest. That did give me the overall pickled look. It may need a bit more blending, but I am happy with the results. I repainted the top of the piece white for a little contrast. It’s definitely not perfect, but I am fine with perfectly imperfect.

This sponsored post was created by The Honeycomb Home.