Vintage Card Catalog Makeover

Kristine(Teeny Ideas)
by Kristine(Teeny Ideas)
5 Materials
$20
4 Days
Easy
I picked up a vintage card catalog for $20 at an estate sale. Structurally the piece was solid. Visually it was covered in layers and layers of brown paint- right down to the hardware. Very cool hardware I might add. I was dying to know what was under all those layers of paint especially on the hardware.
First I gave the card catalog a good cleaning with soapy water and a sponge.
I used Citristrip to remove the layers of paint. I followed the directions and generously applied the Citristrip to the piece with an old paint brush. After about twenty minutes the paint started to bubble and I used a scraper to remove the paint. After all the paint was removed from the card catalog, I sanded the piece with 220 grit sandpaper and a hand sander.
I removed all the paint from the hardware and while it was brass it was tarnished in a not good way.  The stripped hardware did not add any character to the card catalog so I applied a couple of lite coats of antique brass spray paint and that did the trick.
I was hoping for raw wood and brass and I got it- to a degree. I was able to strip the card catalog down to the raw wood. There were some scratches and dings that were hidden by the layers of paint but I think it adds to the character of raw wood. You can see more pictures of the finished card catalog on the blog. I also decorated it for Halloween;)
Resources for this project:
See all materials
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
Kristine(Teeny Ideas)
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
 1 comment
Next