Remember when stripping was sexy?

Getting ready for hot sex and teasing the mate with a bit of strip tease… oh yea. Unfortunately, it’s now a distant memory.  Something to think about in the nursing home for sure. I can still remember it – just not do it! Even if my husband was near blind and the room was completely dark, chances are as I was gyrating around I would throw out my new hip, get a toe cramp or worse yet, trip over the string-like thong. It’s best I leave the sexy stripping to the young folk. So at this age the word “stripping” has taken on a new meaning for me. Furniture. Yep.  That is what age has done to me. Instead of slowly taking off my clothes to reveal lacy, luscious lingerie I’m donning rubber gloves, goggles and a Darth Vader-like mask.

I have undertaken refinishing all the old bedroom furniture as opposed to buying new. This set (triple dresser, armoire and nightstand) is not only made better than today’s bedroom ensembles it’s already mine which means saving a bunch of money. So far this is what have I learned about stripping furniture:

It’s smelly

It’s time-intensive

It’s hard work

When I started this project my husband had found some old stripper in the garage (this is a perfect place for a cheesy joke but I’ll give you a break). He also found all the other supplies I needed because, well – we have everything in our garage that anyone would need for anything times 2, but THAT is the subject for another post. He outfitted me with thick rubber gloves, a special mask made just for filtering fumes, and protective goggles, and told me to go for it.

“I’ll start small”, I told myself and began with the nightstand. Wow – the power of chemicals!!!! I could just watch the paint dissolving before my eyes. 

Then I realized why I was wearing all this protective gear. This stuff would eat away at human skin. It was so cool to watch the paint crackle and bubble. However that enthusiasm didn't last long because basically the stripper does the work of loosening the finish; however the real work starts after the stripper has been lathered on.

Scraping, scraping, scraping. More stripper, more scraping. I had already painted this furniture in the past so there was a layer of paint, primer, poly and stain to go through. Once the wood was exposed it’s sanding, sanding, sanding. After sanding and cleaning you are ready for whatever finish you want to put on the piece. I decided on a satin black. So I put 2 coats of primer and about 2 – 3 coats of paint. Never paint bare wood that has not been primed. Obviously this was not done in one day. This is a multi-day project. So give yourself time. For me, since I'm still working, it was a multi-weekend project.

I had issues with the drawer pulls as well. They were nasty looking and too dark. In my alternate world of unlimited budget that I like to daydream in, I would have purchased some acrylic or Lucite pulls but since I am on a tight budget I decided to spray-paint the knobs. I bought a can of silver spray paint and went at it. And ya know? They look pretty damn good.

 Remember when spray-painting wear the latex gloves and stay out of the wind. Obviously I’ve made both mistakes before.

While we are on the subject of spray-paint…I had brass curtain rods up in the bedroom. I didn’t want to spend the money to buy new ones and did not want brass, so I just spray painted the old ones black.  This would not work if the curtains would be moved back and forth on a daily basis. Because I have blinds behind the curtains, they are stationary and don’t have to worry about the paint scraping off. Take a look at how my husband created a cool way for me to spray paint these little devils. He’s a genius!

With the pieces hanging it made it a breeze to spray paint.

So now the nightstand is done, pulls are done, and curtain rods are done.  The mammoth triple dresser was stripped this weekend and the stripping was definitely NOT sexy! It was a bear to strip. In the midst of all the stripping and scraping I was cussing at myself for not going to the furniture store and buying new. I wish I could blame someone else for this decision (like my husband) however I have to admit it was all me. Sometimes my bright ideas aren't too bright. I will forge on and complete this project but next time I'm going to Ethan Allen.

Ready for primer and paint. YEA!