Church Pew From the Early 1900’s Gets a Fresh New Makeover
3 Materials
$75
2 Days
Medium
This church pew has been sitting in my garage for months. Yep, months. I got her from our local Habitat for Humanity for $50 bucks. I just could not let her sit there any longer feeling all alone.
Old Church Pew
I knew I wanted to repaint her and use her as a bench (yes it’s a female haha). But I also knew that older pieces have a sort of lacquer or varnish on top and it can be a pain to remove!
Thank goodness for Klean Strip! This stuff is amazing! (Make sure to wear protective gloves on your hands and a mask). It takes patience because you have to let it sit and really work in the lacquer, but it takes it right off!
Let the stripping begin! The Hubs was nice enough to do most of it for me. He worked in small sections. He just followed the directions on the can. Apply, wait 15 to 20 minutes then scrape (use a metal paint scraper). It took almost the entire day to scrape all the gunk off.
Finally I see wood! Yipeeee! After all the top coat was removed, I made sure to wipe it down well to remove any stripper that may have been left. I then sanded the entire piece with 80 grit sandpaper. Once I felt all the ugly paint and top coat was removed, I used 220 to smooth her up! (There were two layers of paint under the original!). Wonder why they repainted it so many times 
I decided to use Annie Sloan Old White, so I gave her two coats, allowing drying time in between.
I wanted to maintain the old, antique feel of the pew, so I decided to use antique glazing. I used the color Moose Moussee (a sort of grayish). It’s pretty simple. Normally I would apply poly beforehand so that the glaze would not soak into the paint, but on this particular piece I wanted it to soak in, allowing the piece to look worn and old. Wipe on, wipe off, working in small sections. Once I had the glaze applied and let dry for 24 hours, I then applied a coat of Polyacrylic on the entire piece.
And here she is! She fit perfectly at the end of the bed :-). I think she turned out beautiful! I sure wish I knew the history of her.
Resources for this project:
Smart Strip by Peel Away® One Quart ‘Sample Size’ Paint Remover
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 16 comments
-
I could so use that at the end of my bed. I'm terrible about putting things away so I know what would happen.
-
Beautiful job...and what a great find!!!! Enjoy...
-
Thank you! Yes it was, it is so hard to find the old wood pews :)
-
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?