Restoring an old medicine cabinet with an apparently rough life, pulled from a junk pile. The interior was coated in thick white paint. I stripped that with a water based stripper, then sanded back with 80grit. That went pretty well but there is still quite a bit of paint deep in the grain, almost acting as filler in some of the larger/deeper fissures
Thinking of a few options:
- Manually picking out the paint, possibly with some heat. Probably not feasible as there are so many little flecks. A stiff brush helps, but so far not much luck
- Keep sanding back, which would probably require removing a lot of material to access all of these deep grooves. I’m leaning towards this, but also holding out hope that there might be a way to loosen/flush it out without losing too much wood
- Consider wax/stain options that might even it out. Least favoured option. I suspect the white might not take stain well, and pop even more. My original plan was just tung oil finish, which I’d still prefer
Any advice on ways to handle this?
Honestly? I would finish it as is. I’d leave those traces of white paint behind, as scars of its past life. It’ll create a really interesting pseudo-patina - a one-of-a-kind piece.
That’s a fair point too. I certainly don’t usually aim to look brand new, just some TLC that still allows for some of the history to also be seen. The advantage of this being old is that it’s all solid timber, no particle, veneer, panels etc. So I can hit it pretty hard.
As Marafon said in another comment, sanding is the eternal task. Reminds me of the Orson Welles quote “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.”
I feel like I’m not quite where I want my ending on this one yet, but will get there at some point.
Totally reasonable! I’m sure it’ll look pretty cool when you’re done, and it’s valid to feel you’re not quite there yet.
I love real wood for reasons just like that.
Like grandpa always said you’ll never be done sanding, you just get to decide when to stop.
Other than just painting it white again, I think sanding is gonna be the solution here
Yeah this is where I was headed haha. Thanks!
No worries homie, good luck with all the sanding! It’s the neverending struggle of woodworking.
I concur.
Cabinet scraper. Heat can also work; if you get it warm and scrape it, it can lift the edge and you can peel it back.
Or just lean into it. It’s a highlight?
Heat + scraper should get it down enough to get the degree of removal you want without either removing it all, or losing a lot of wood.
Solvents wise, you might try something a little more aggressive applied very thinly via a rag.
Seems like the kind of situation that sandblasters were invented for. They’ve even got ones that use dry ice as their abrasive so they won’t leave any grit behind in those holes.
Another coat of stripper, then paint scraper, so you don’t rub the paint into the pores with sandpaper. Might try the stiff brush while it’s coated in stripper.
