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My Vintage Porch

Interior Design, DIY, and Refurbishing

Stripping Veneer And Milk Paint

Filed Under: DIY, Furniture Refurbishing Tagged With: bleached, dresser, how to lighten wood, light wood dresser, removing veneer, sanded

Character, character, character… you probably know how much I love good wood character in furniture by now. A few years back I painted almost every furniture piece that I brought home. Now, it’s so hard for me to touch any wood with paint. Would I still paint a piece of furniture? Yes, but rarely, compared to how much I used to paint furniture.

I’ve had this milk painted dresser for years. I was the one that initially painted it. Although I loved the milk paint, I was dying to strip it down to bare wood.

I tried out a new green product, Green EZ Strip and Clean, to see if it would work to strip the paint. It worked wonders! I’m not sure how it would work on other paints, but it worked great on this milk painted dresser! I was very impressed! I’ve seen others use it in place of oven cleaner to strip wood as well and it has worked great for them. Just like oven cleaner, I’m sure there are times where it doesn’t work as good, but this was not that time.

I sprayed it on, let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes, and then scrubbed the paint off. It took a little bit of scrubbing but it all came off.

I rinsed it off with water from my hose. I do not use a pressure washer on these kinds of projects. I do have an attachment on the end of my hose but it does not give out any extra pressure. I let it dry out and then repeated the process to get the bits of paint that were a little more stubborn.

After it was completely dry, I brought it inside to see what the color would look like in indoor lighting. I knew it was veneer and I was trying to figure out if I wanted to keep the veneer and try to save it, or take it off.

The veneer was chipping in various places. I ended up feeling that the veneer was chipping too much and I decided to remove all of it. It’s tough to tell in the photo below how much the veneer was chipping, but it was on one edge of the drawer, an edge across the top, and a couple of edges on the sides.

I used my iron to remove the veneer. I let a wet towels sit on the drawers overnight and the veneer came off so much better after doing that. I have more about the process of removing veneer, in this post.

After removing veneer, the wood surface is rough and sometimes there is a little bit of glue or tiny little wood splintery pieces that need to be smoothed out and sanded. I used my hand sander with 150 grit sandpaper and lightly sanded over the drawers, the top, and sides of the dresser where I had removed the veneer.

Before I had removed the veneer I had used would bleach on the entire dresser (to see if I liked the veneer like that) and it lightened the veneer as well as the parts that weren’t veneer. I forgot to take pics of that step.

When I took the veneer off, I wanted to lighten a couple of spots that had greenish tones in the wood. I mixed a little bit of barkeepers friend and water and let it sit on the dresser for about 30 minutes. I don’t really have a ratio, I just mix a bit of those two things and wipe it onto the dresser.

I always love scrubbing the hardware with barkeepers friend to see what is under the years of tarnished hardware. It turned out beautiful! A bit of the tarnished areas remained on the hardware, which I love because it makes it look old, with a bit of gold showing through.

I used a scrubber and scrubbed until I started seeing gold show through the tarnished areas.

One more look at the before…

I know there will be some that love it better painted, In this case, I am not one of those. I love the raw wood character and all of the worm holes showing through! I have yet to add the decorative piece back on. It fell apart a little in the process of removing the veneer. I am putting it back together and I will attempt to put it back on, if I like the way it looks. I do love how it looks without it as well!

I have not sealed it yet. I’m actually kind of scared to touch it with any kind of sealer because I love the character and color so much! I may try to add a white wash and then add sealer over that to keep the lighter color. But, I don’t want the color to change at all, so I might just leave this one as is, without sealer, for now until I decide where it’s going to go in the house that we build.

When I found the old worm holes underneath all of that veneer, I was so excited! My daughter said “gross, worms”. Maybe someday she’ll like worm holes, ha ha.

The top is beautiful as well! I love all of the original wood character!

And, I love how the shined up hardware gives the dresser a little bit of bling!

I’m in love with this dresser and I’m so glad I stripped it!

And, thank you to the worms for doing their job so long ago! What do you think? Are you on the “like it better painted“ side or “glad you stripped it“ side? You all know what side I’m on.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kathy Jacobsen says

    March 25, 2022 at 8:51 am

    Love the finish!! It looks amazing!!

    • My Vintage Porch says

      March 25, 2022 at 6:46 pm

      Thank you so much Kathy!

  2. LORRI says

    March 25, 2022 at 8:57 am

    Honestly I would like it painted but it looks lovely in your house with your decor. So all your hard work looks good. I love the way the door handles turned out😍

    • My Vintage Porch says

      March 25, 2022 at 6:47 pm

      Thank you Lorri! I did like it painted too

    • Marle says

      March 27, 2022 at 5:26 am

      Hi there, love the transformation! I was wondering, does the water/bar keepers friend mixture work similar to bleaching?

      • My Vintage Porch says

        March 31, 2022 at 8:44 am

        Hi! Thank you! If you have all of the sealer off, it can lighten stain when left on for a longer period, like overnight

  3. Sandy says

    March 25, 2022 at 9:06 am

    It turned out so beautiful, and the worm holes are wonderful.

    • My Vintage Porch says

      March 25, 2022 at 6:47 pm

      Was so excited to find those 🙌🏼

  4. Holly says

    March 25, 2022 at 10:15 am

    It looks beautiful, Natalie!

    • My Vintage Porch says

      March 25, 2022 at 6:47 pm

      Thank you so much Holly!

  5. Sally Manz says

    March 25, 2022 at 10:22 am

    So gorgeous!! Love all the character! Stripping for the win!

    • My Vintage Porch says

      March 25, 2022 at 6:47 pm

      Yayyy! Glad you like it too! Thank you!

  6. Lynn Hodgeman says

    March 25, 2022 at 11:35 am

    Love it!

    • My Vintage Porch says

      March 25, 2022 at 6:48 pm

      Thank you Lynn!!

  7. Alicia K Cooper K. Cooper says

    March 25, 2022 at 12:32 pm

    So cool and beautiful. Love your presses.

    • My Vintage Porch says

      March 25, 2022 at 6:48 pm

      Thank you Alicia! ♥️

  8. Jessica says

    March 25, 2022 at 2:45 pm

    Love It !!

  9. Katie Wiesen says

    March 25, 2022 at 2:58 pm

    It turned out great! I don’t know why I’m supposed though, you are amazing at transforming furniture. Great job!

  10. Lori Adelmann says

    March 25, 2022 at 6:51 pm

    As usual, you’ve improved that piece at least 100%.

  11. Kathy M says

    March 25, 2022 at 10:09 pm

    When I saw the original piece, I loved it. I scrolled through your article anticipating disappointment when I saw the finished piece. Why, I’m not sure because your finished pieces are always beautiful. Well, no exception here. My mouth dropped. It was instant Love! I love it way more that the painted version. Way more!

  12. Cheryl Atkinson says

    March 26, 2022 at 1:06 pm

    Hi Natalie! Another great piece. I think I would rather use the green stuff any day over the oven cleaner. I hope you use a mask when you use oven cleaner. That stuff is very toxic.

  13. Maggie May Hanson says

    March 26, 2022 at 4:48 pm

    The dresser looks so good !!! I like the milk paint until you finished the dresser. It makes me want to strip everything I have in furniture !!

  14. Brenda says

    March 26, 2022 at 10:08 pm

    Love the stripped version! Amazing work. How do you deal with cracks on a natural piece of furniture like this one?

  15. Jody Gebben says

    March 27, 2022 at 1:06 am

    I love it both ways. I think I would decide on which way (painted or stripped) depending on the other stuff in the room. Thank you for your blog! I have a buffet that was my grandma’s. It’s over a 100yrs old. The veneer’s in BAD shape. I’m excited to restore it after seeing what you’ve done with your pieces!!

  16. Lori Merrill says

    March 27, 2022 at 4:22 am

    Love, love, love it! I too have been a painter of things. This gives me grams ideas of pieces I have yet to do. Thanks so much! Lori

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