Pickling wood questions

Melissa Olson
by Melissa Olson
I about to re-finish an old douglas fir dresser. My daughter painted it dark blue and black. I know I have to remove the paint. I would like to know the procedure in pickling it. Can I add a tint of color to the pickle? Will show off the wood grain too?

Thank you,
Melissa dblpi0306@yahoo.com

  4 answers
  • Cynthia H Cynthia H on Aug 28, 2017

    I've seen the terms whitewashing, milk paint, liming used fairly interchangeably on different sites. Milk paint is definitely something you can get in colors. Whitewashing is basically watered down paint so you could do it with almost any water based paint. I'm not sure if you can tint liming but, it wouldn't be hard to find out. Mostly I've seen liming wax in stores and online.

  • Sharon Sharon on Aug 28, 2017

    Milk paint isn't for pickling, too dense pigments. You can pickle with colored latex paint, whats in vogue right now in pickling is gray and/or pale blue. Minwax has a nice gray stain that will give you that look.

    Brush on Pickling latex primer-sealer with 3 parts water. Using a 4-inch brush, paint on a patch of the pickling solution. Tip: I use nylon netting to remove the excess pickle after letting it sit a bit, and to striate the pickle sometimes. Tip: When pickling soft woods like pine, apply a water-based wood conditioning. If its too smooth, then sand lightly to allow the pickling to take evenly.