Vintage Card Catalog Makeover
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
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Comments
Join the conversation
1 comment
-
Love this! Great job!
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?