What's this!? I'm working on a home improvement project?? It is true. I buckled down and ordered myself to stop going back and forth about what to do with the woodwork and start scraping. This will take me about 2 years so don't expect any fabulous before and afters any time soon! I have windows, (all of these are pre-move in shots)
bookcases with mantle,
stairs,
doors and the ceiling beams (ugh!) Most of this was redone quickly in maybe the 70's?? Since that is when a major overhaul seems to have occurred. They chose a dark, dark, dark brown - typical 70's. I've been trying to brainstorm ideas of how to do this process without a total scrape and refinish but I dislike the 70's brown and I can't figure out any other way to get it to go away. I came across this photo and it finalized my decision that I wanted to rid this space of 70's brown.
I'm starting with the front windows.
The finish is basically black and dirty. Gross!
The sills have been abused by kitties, water, sunlight and I'm not sure what all. Also, previous owners had plastic taped over the windows which took care of the finish up the sides.
The sun is reflecting but the windows already feel cleaner even though it's just the putsy detail trim parts which are cleaned. The advantage of old crusty finish is it flakes right off with some light sanding so I already almost have 2 of the tedious window parts done.
Also, I started to strip the bookshelf (as seen here during Christmas)
Despite it never being painted in my lifetime, it somehow manages to have 12 coats of paint on it and this stinky emerald green is at the bottom, in the grain. I had visions of finishing this to match the woodwork so it looks like a real built in but we shall see about that one.
I totally sympathize with what you're going through. Good luck! We'll be back at paint stripping once I can bring myself to move out of the last bedroom.
ReplyDeleteThat green looks a bit like the stuff we found at the bottom in our dining room. I think ours might have been transparent stain. Most of it came off with the chemicals, but we did have to sand the last bits.
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All I can say is thank goodness it is not painted! Though if it was I would probably just be painting it white and going with dark wall colors. For the moment anyways! :)
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