How to Remove Paint From Wood Furniture

This is what the dresser looked like before we started to work on it. The paint was chipping off because of water damage.

We were planning on painting it a dark grey, but we had to get the old paint off before we could paint it again.

Otherwise the new paint would just chip off with the old stuff, and it would look horrible!

We started by testing the paint for lead.

Yes you can still remove lead based paint, and you don't need to call in a pro. You can do it by yourself with a few safety precautions.

The white paint tested negative for lead, but the gold paint tested positive.

When you have lead based paint, it's best to remove it with a chemical stripper instead of sanding it. I wouldn't recommend sanding anyway because it's usually a much longer process, especially when you add in all the details on furniture.

Also be sure to gear up with your safety gear that is recommended for lead removal, so you don't ingest it in any way.

We put a nice thick layer of Citristrip Stripper all over the dresser and covered it with plastic wrap to make the stripper work longer and better.

The plastic wrap really works wonders, you neeeeeed to try it!

After we let it sit overnight, we removed the plastic wrap one section at a time and then scrapped off the paint and stripper.

Then we cleaned up the residue with mineral spirits and fine steel wool. And then we let the dresser dry for a day or so.

Once it was dry we sanded the wood down nice and smooth.

Instead of painting the dresser grey, we decided to go with a raw wood look.

So we sealed the wood with poly and finished off the "raw wood" look with a thin coat of a homemade cream colored wax.

Here it is all finished up with new hardware!!

Get even more details on this process over on our blog!

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