Restore Your Old Window

Piece of Meesh
by Piece of Meesh
12 Materials
$20
4 Hours
Easy

My (quarantine) kitchen renovation is still underway (it’s been 8 months, but who’s counting)! (Okay maybe my husband is..) But I finally finished one area..and that’s the windows. It should be a sin for someone to cover these beautiful wood windows with paint. Well let’s fix this.


And if you’re interested in more of this renovation and other things that I am updating in my old 1880 home, make sure to check out my Instagram page for more.

This is what I am starting with which is midway through renovating this side of the kitchen. I’ve already tiled, changed the countertops, sink, faucet and built a custom range hood cover. I’ll be back when I decorate that.

This blue trim is on every crevice of trim in this house.

First thing you have to do is remove the window. If you have a storm window, unscrew that so you are left with only the frame.

I decided to sand the paint off. Make sure you wear your mask, safety glasses and noise cancelling headphones for your protection. I started with 80 grit, then 100 ->150.


Alternatively, you could always use a heat gun and/or Citristrip to get most of the paint off. Pro tip for Citristrip: put a big glob of it on, then cover with a plastic bag. Leave that on overnight and by the next morning the paint will practically peel itself off! After you get the paint off this way, you will have to sand to get a smooth finish, but not as much!

I was able to get both sides of the window down to bare wood in 30 minutes.

Even though this is real wood, it is a soft wood, and there were so many layers of paint, so I decided to use wood conditioner to make sure I had an even finish with the stain. I usually apply with a foam brush, wipe off the excess then let dry as instructed (30 minutes).

I’m using Walnut Gel Stain. Make sure you stir your stain as the color/sediments settle to the bottom.

I use a foam brush or lint free cloth to apply stain. A staining sponge works great too if you have one handy.

Apply polycrylic to protect all your hard work! Minwax is my go-to in matte and water-based!

Now that the tedious part is over, clean those storm windows!

Using the holes that was there before, I quickly screwed this back into place.

I’m not sure why but I was really excited for this step. If you scroll back to the before picture, you could understand that there was no way I was reusing the hardware or anything that remotely resembled it. But I had to do this on a budget. Off to Amazon I went and I found 2 pull rings for $4! I paid $8 total for these rings!!


I will admit that they looked a little cheap. It was gold but it was poorly done. So I spray painted black. I screwed the pull rings into scrap wood to make it easier to spray paint. I didn’t worry about making the spray paint perfect because I knew I was going to use Rub and Buff (Antique Gold) over it.

This was my very simple technique. I made sure there was the tiniest amount of Rub and Buff on my brush, then dabbed it on while constantly moving the brush.


Beware- this paint will stain and a little goes a very very long way!

I held the pull ring in place while I screwed the screw in from below, and then I was done.

And now of course, I’ll have to figure out how to paint the faucet gold to match all the hardware.🙂

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  • Dro8169481 Dro8169481 on Jan 04, 2022

    I grew up in a house with the same kind of windows and my Dad did the same thing to them. You did an awesome job! I love the gingerbread woodwork in your home. Have you thought of stripping the paint off of them and taking them back to stained wood? I think they would look beautiful! Good luck with the rest of your updates!

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  • Barb Barb on Jan 04, 2021

    Wow! Only one I’ve seen is over $1000. Not in the budget

  • Barb Barb on Jan 05, 2021

    no. It was a new cast iron enamel one. Love yours.

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