Antiquing Furniture?
Question:I am thinking about sanding an old dresser that i have and applying a dark antique finish to it. Does anyone know the best way to go about this? I have read that there is a wax to apply to the varnish, however i really dont want to mess up the dresser. Any suggestions?
Answers:
NEVER sand if you can avoid it..Try a furniture refinisher like Formbes or paint /varnish Stripper. Once the paint old varnish is off you may find that the wood underneith is in pretty good shape. The most sever thing I use on old furniture is 000 steel wool to help get the old finish off. If you do not sand, you will not destroy details. I use 0000 steel wool to wash the wood with alcohol or laquer thinner once all the paint is off. Try a nice stain from minwax to rich up the color of your wood after stripping it. Try wipe on Tung oil finish (egg shell semi gloss) is very nice and very easy to do with a lint free cloth. Two or three coats will give it a nice coat , and very eay to do without runs and globs of varnish like you get with a brush. My opinion about Antiquing on old furniture? Yeck!! A lot of old furniture was Meant to be painted, so consider just putting a nice coat of paint on it after it's been stripped. Time and loving care will add patina and natural antiquing.
There's really no way to do it without damaging it.
There is a stain & paint remover that works very well. Then use a palm sander in necessary places. just be sure to follow instructions. I have used this stuff quite a few times. You can buy it at any hardware store.
No stain is going to work without removing the old finish. If you know of a wax, and I do, I would go ahead and use that.
If you want to strip it, that is easy enough, but what it will do is to remove any "patina" that the wood has
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