Turn of the Century Parlor Chairs makeover Part 2 Citristrip the frame!

Yeah yeah, I know if these chairs didn't have paint & glitter nail polish on them I likely would have kept the wonderfully worn antique finish but it it is what it is and now I am committed to making them beautiful for another hundred years (hopefully).

Chairs that haven't been painted normally do not need Citristrip piled on like you normally would when trying to remove layers of paint. I found a light layer works great! I leave it on for approximately 5 minutes then move it around with the brush a little. If you feel a tugging the old finish still needs more time. I move my brush around adding more if it's starting to dry out. If you don't overload your piece then it makes the removal alot less messy. I remove the Citristrip with 0000 steel wool. Note it takes alot of steel wool to complete a project like this, make sure you have enough handy. You don't want to use a paint remover & damage the old stained finish.This is what my light layer looks like.

This is what the back of the piece looked like before Citristrip. I just love this stuff, it doesn't burn like the old stuff but you really do still want to wear gloves. It smells great & seems to do the job. To be honest I haven't tackled a huge massive painted piece ...yet, but I will let you know when I do & do a comparison with other paint remover products and treatments. So far this has worked great on the few pieces I have done that were covered in old shellac & poly finishes. It even removed oil based paint from plastic without melting it..now that says something!

After removing the Citristrip with 0000 steel wool.

Once you are totally finished stripping off the old finish grab your can of denatured alcohol and an old sock. You know those single socks you find in your dryer? They are perfect for this! Or a worn towel cut into pieces, old pillow cases anything that is soft and absorbent. Rub down your entire piece. If you are doing chairs like me right now you are thinking..what did I get myself into? Damn, chairs have many more parts then I even ever considered! They do but it's worth it! Rub rub rub! This removes the Citristrip and helps even the finish.

I believe my chairs are either pine or ash with a cherry stain and probably many coats of a dark amber shellac. I like the color but it's a little too red for me. I am going to upholster them in a medium gray restoration velvet so I think the red tone will be a little too clashy..clashie? Hmm. So General Finishes to the rescue. I don't want to change the old patina on the chairs so this treatment was done extremely quickly. Two hands in motion at all times. One had applies the finish on just the end of a paper towel the other immediately wipes it off...no waiting, do not stop. Rub back & forth with the clean paper towel until it reaches the level that you desire. By all means if you want to change the color like I did with my previous chairs, leave it on for a while before whipping off. However you want to darken the color down a little and fix old scrapes & scratches do it quickly. Obviously if you don't want to change the color but to just freshen the original stain use a closer match. 

Here is the chair with the old finish removed and the stain refreshed. I did both chairs using about half a bottle of Citristrip, one large bag of steel wool and only about 1/8th of a teaspoon of General Finishes per chair (this stuff goes a looooongggg way!!). 

Cheers till later!