We love painted wood, much more than stains and varnishes. This wardrobe was my mum’s when she was a kid and it was second-hand then so god knows how old it is.
It had a thick layer of dark brown varnish on it so I decided to strip it off. I forgot to take a before picture of the moulding at the top…
…but here’s an after picture. Isn’t it lovely? I used paint stripper and a toothbrush to scrub off all that dark varnish, and you really couldn’t tell what was there before.
I stripped the whole thing and then finished it with fine sandpaper. It looks quite patchy in the pic, but it was much cleaner than it looks.
Then mum used a small roller and pure white eggshell to finish it. She put the paint on in several thin layers because we didn’t want it to be too white, and also we didn’t want to lose the moulding but accentuate it.
It’s amazing how a little highlighting has brought out all the detail. Those triangular bits were always just triangles, but now we can see all the little leaves. We never saw the veins in the large leaves before either, or the petals on the flower.
We love it, and it will be perfect in mum’s newly decorated all-white bedroom (when we finish it!).
Beccy
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