Stripping a Metal Stool
by
Alicia W
3 Materials
$20
2 Days
Easy
Removing paint from any piece of furniture may seem like a daunting task but it really isn't when you know how.
I found this metal stool at a thrift store for $2. It was in really good shape, no rust but it was painted brown. I wanted to breath new life into it.
I knew I had to strip off the layers of paint. I used Citristrip. This is a great paint stripper. There are no fumes so you could use this indoors in a room with no ventilation. You must; however, protect your work surface and yourself by covering the surface with plastic and wear gloves.
Apply the stripper using an inexpensive brush. You want to coat the piece with a heavy amount of stripper.
Allow it to work about 10 minutes then you can begin to remove the paint using a puddy knife.
As you can see this stool was painted more than once. I couldn't remove all the paint with the first application, so I applied another coat.
The second coat of stripper did the trick. As you can see, the stool had been painted brown, white, and red. Yellow was the original color.
It was difficult to strip all the pieces of the stool, so I took it apart taking care to keep all of the bolts that held the stool together.
The legs were especially difficult to work with but after taking the stool apart, I applied stripper to each leg.
And used heavy grit steel wool to remove the paint. The steel wool was great because I could form it around the legs and strip the paint off of the entire leg at one time.
Once all the pieces were stripped, I wiped them clean with a mild soap and water and allowed them to dry.
I chose Krylon Colormaxx in Pistachio to paint the stool. The secret to using spray paint it to apply in light, even coats and don't spray too close to your piece as this is what causes drips.
If you do have drips, use a piece of fine steel wool and lightly sand away the drip and repaint.
I used two cans of paint and applied four coats to each piece.
Once all of the pieces were dry, I reassembled the stool.
I wanted to make it unique so I cut a quote out of vinyl using my Cricut. I applied it to the back of the seat.
I love the quote - so appropriate and so cute!
And here is the finished stool. All of the hard work (which really wasn't that hard) was worth the effort.
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Resources for this project:
Krylon 53563 Pistachio 'Satin Touch' Decorator Spray Paint - 12 oz. Aerosol
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Comments
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2 of 49 comments
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You worked hard for that! That shade of green is my favorite color and it looks great. I like the quote on it as well.
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Thank you for your help!
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
My stool has vinyl covering the seat and back. The set is torn and missing some padding and vinyl. Since you took yours apart, do you think the seat could be recovered with fabric?
I love this step stool! Can you tell me what the model is? Name brand and such? I'd love to try and find one. Beautiful job and lots of great tips. Thanks!
Is there any way to dip or soak the pieces to make the stripping easier? I wouldn't be able to do that much physical work with my arms because of bad arthritis.