How To Strip Wood

How To Strip Wood

I am going to teach you step by step how to strip wood. In a world of DIY, wood stripping is a huge part of that. Whether it may be furniture, cabinets, doors and more, wood stripping will play a vital role in your DIY journey. 

First let's start with what you will need. I will include links to products as well in this blog! These are my paid links!

Supplies: 

Now there's a few things here you can use alternatives for:

Instead of a paint tray you can just use a scrap piece of cardboard or any old plate you don't use to eat off of anymore. Just something to set your tools down and put some citristrip on for vertical projects you may be stripping. If you don't have plastic wrap I have also cut a trash bag in half and laid overtop of my project, sometimes this works better if you're doing a big piece anyways! If you don’t have plastic tarps you can use an old sheet, old towels, trash bags, anything you can throw away or don’t care about to make sure you don’t ruin the floor.

Okay now let's get started with the "how to"!

Step 1:

Begin by cleaning your project and getting rid of any dirt, dust, etc. Then take your citristrip and pour over top. For vertical pieces that do not lay flat (cabinets, table legs, etc.) pour your citristip on a paint tray/cardboard/plate and use that to get citristrip on your brush. The quickest and most efficient way to do anything that is flat (laying down) is to just pour the citristrip on the piece directly. Then you will take your brush and slowly spread it out going in one direction. TIP: you do not want to go back and forth too much or in circles/opposite directions because this will spread your stripper too thin. 

Step 2: 

After your project is covered with the stripper you will then cover your project in plastic wrap. This will make sure air does not dry out the stripper, therefore, allowing the stripper to get further down to reach more coats of paint, etc. 

You can leave on for up to 24 hours depending on your project/ how much you need to strip off or if you run out of time to scrape it off, but I typically leave on for about an hour. 

Step 3:

After your timer goes off, remove the plastic wrap and begin scraping with your paint scraper. I always go WITH the grain of the wood. Clean your scrapper off and get rid of all the stripper & paint that is coming off and place on the old cling wrap or into a trash bag. Do this until it is all off your project.

TIP: if there's still more paint that you cannot see the wood at all do another coat of stripper and repeat this process.

Step 4:

Once that is done you will be left with a sticky residue. You will want to clean up with a rag (the rags I linked above are great for lots of jobs, including staining your new piece!) and mineral spirits. Some projects may even have some leftover paint. This is when you can come in with an old bowl with warm water and rubbing alcohol. I just fill a bowl up halfway and add some rubbing alcohol. I then will take my wire brush, dunk in the water mixture and start scrubbing my piece until the paint is gone, (frequently wiping away the mess).

Note: This is a messy process so be sure you have something underneath to catch the mess. 

Tip: these small wire brushes are great for small crevices 

Step 5:

Once you have completed this and your piece is cleaned up and dried (do not do this step if your wood is wet or there is still any sticker residue), you can then move onto sanding to prep your piece for new stain or paint of your choice! See our next blog post for this info!

There you have it, you have now successfully stripped wood and have a blank slate for your newest project. 

I hope this was helpful! Good luck on all your DIY adventures with your newest skill. 

 

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