Monday, March 18, 2013

Calling it a day!

I have a love/hate relationship with DIYs.  Like everyone else, I love DIYs because they are truly inspiring, cost-effective, and you get a wave of endorphins when it is all said and done.  Simultaneously, I despise them because they take more planning than I originally thought and 9 times out of 10 its a lot harder than I anticipated.

Case in point - stripping paint off a dresser.

Mind you, stripping the paint off is just the first step of this whole entire process.


This is a dresser I purchased off of craigslist two years ago.  It was already painted white and was in pretty decent shape.  I just replaced the hardware.  I'm now tired of the look and I want to strip the paint to see what I'm working with (wood wise).  If the wood is nice I'd like create a limed 'oak' look finish.

This past weekend, my very patient husband walked me through the entire process and today I strived to tackle this while my daughter napped.

So, I coated the dresser with tons of stipping gel and waited over an hour to start stripping.  Did I tell you it was 34 degrees outside?  Yes, it was.  So with frozen hands, I started stripping the paint.  Yeah, not so good.


The paint would not come off.  I was like "whaaa?".  And, to top it off I don't think I'm dealing with very nice wood here.  Who knows. But, I can honestly say I was defeated today.

The worst part about this is that I have at least two more rounds of this to go before I even sand it. And we're expecting a snow storm tomorrow so this baby will be probably sitting in our garage all week.

Why do I do this to myself?  And, to think I could've bought this dresser for $500.


I know.  I almost bought it, but then I thought, no, we're trying to save for college, etc.  I just can strip our current dresser.  Ugh!  So, now I'm off to have my glass of wine.  I think I deserve it today! :)

Posted at ⋅ LABELED:
Share on Facebook

4 comments:

  1. Karen at Home Sweet HollywoodMarch 18, 2013 at 9:04 PM

    You definitely deserve that glass of wine. That's brutal. Such a hard job.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Vintique ObjectMarch 18, 2013 at 11:44 PM

    I hear you, I hear you. I recently tried to strip a painted vintage door down to the wood. It is not an easy thing to do, despite what you read on the blogs. The best thing I found was a video tutorial from Miss Mustard Seed. Try watching that and see how it goes. It's definitely a multi-step process.
    Camille

    ReplyDelete
  3. AshleyMarch 19, 2013 at 12:20 PM

    Having just stripped a desk down to the wood and then liming it, I totally feel your pain, Fran. I think the cold temps got in your way. It might have been too cold for the gel to fully cure. If you use Citristrip, it's definitely something you can use inside the house (no deadly fumes) but the kiddos should be kept away from the gel nonetheless. Just a thought!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Holly GruszkaMarch 19, 2013 at 1:42 PM

    Oh yes that glass of wine was well deserved - perhaps 2 or 3. I have no patience when it comes to something like this, so I applaud you for even giving it a whirl.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)