The Chair: Part 3

I finished taking the cloth off the chair and... it looks so naked. Don't stare. It's not polite.

the last piece of fabric

so naked!

Then came the part I was scared of: removing the stain. I first thought I wanted to paid the chair gold and cover it with white crackle paint. Then I thought paint would be too permanent and considered restaining it a darker color. Then I thought about doing either of those things on top of the existing finish (I'm not sure what all was on the chair and how that would affect whatever I put on top of it). Then I got really nervous and considered leaving it as is, because what if I screwed it up and then it looked ugly and I ruined everything and wahhhh!

So of course I went for it. I started small with a few areas I hope wouldn't be too obvious if it was hideous. I used Citristrip Stripping Gel. I heard this was better for furniture because it kind of glops on the surface unlike a liquid which would just run down everything. I applied it with a cheap paint brush and let it sit for about 40 minutes.

 

 

I came back to it with a paper towel and everything wiped right off. It was really quite cool. With that to make me feel cocky I went full force at the chair. I covered the entire top half of the chair in the stripper and let it sit for a while. I actually put it on right before Thanksgiving dinner, so I was afraid it would dry out, even though the bottle says you can leave it on for 24 hours.

I came back to it after dinner and started wiping everything off. It wasn't as easy as the test areas because there are so many groves and ridges. Getting everything off took hours, some muscle, and about half a role of paper towels, and there was still some left on. I used a plastic fork to get some gunk out of the  grooves. When that didn't get everything that was left I did a second coat of stripper on a few areas.Then it looked a lot better, and I figure anything left will probably be hid by whatever I cover it with anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving!