One Room Challenge Week 5: Stripping and Refinishing Furniture

One week closer to being finished! I spent Saturday sanding and stripping the finish off of the buffet in our foyer. Originally, I was going to paint it, but now I think it’s going to stay light. I love the warmth the natural wood it brings to the space.

I started to give the piece a quick sanding before painting it black. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it is solid wood. I expected to find wood veneer. This piece holds all of our board games and puzzles.

Once I saw that light wood, I couldn’t stop. I had to see what was underneath! Here’s a “before” picture of the buffet. The gray paint I had haphazardly thrown on a few years ago was scratched and in need of some help.

I used 2-3 coats of Citristrip to cut through the layers of paint, varnish, and stain. In between each coat, I stripped what I could and reapplied. Make sure to wait long enough in between to allow the stripper to work. To keep the stripping agent from drying out, I covered it with plastic wrap. I learned this fabulous tip from Amy at The Coastal Oak. She has amazing tutorials on refinishing furniture.

Once I scraped as much of it as I could, I used steel wool to scrub the wood. I followed that by sanding with a coarse grit sandpaper using an orbital sander. I plan to stain the bamboo sections a slightly darker color (maybe walnut) and leave the rest a natural wood. I don’t think I’ll be able to strip the bamboo details completely, and the darker stain will hide the imperfections in the stripping process while giving a nice visual detail.

Next week I will decide on paint for the door and hang the new light fixture. Look for an update on Thursday-ish!

Here’s one last shot of the room currently. FYI, the outfit is linked on Like to Know it here, if you’re interested.

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I’ll be back next week to give more updates. Thanks for stopping by my today. Let’s stay in touch! Subscribe below to receive posts by email or follow me on Instagram or Facebook.