How to Remove Paint From Wood Furniture? [Ultimate Guide]

Sometimes it is required to remove paint from furniture to give it a new look. However, you can even turn it into its original glory by fully removing old paint from your favorite furniture. By the time new paints turn into old, stripping is the easiest solution to rejuvenate them.

Removing paint from wooden furniture tools Checklist: 

• Shellac Thinner.
• Lacquer Thinner.
• Denatured Alcohol.
• Paint remover.
• Lead paint test kit.
• Sandpaper.
• Scrapers and scrubbers.
• Heat gun.
• Safety equipment like Glasses and gloves.
• Paint Stripper, etc.

How to Remove Old Paint from Furniture?

Removing old paint from furniture isn’t a big deal when you have little or no experience with it. You can do this job by hiring an industry expert or your own. Eventually, you can save a couple of hundred dollars if you do it by yourself. So let’s check how you can easily stripping paint off wood furniture.

First, you need to prepare furniture by removing handles, hinges, and other stuff that can damage your furniture. At the same time, you need to repair them if there is any sign of damage. After preparing the furniture, now you may select a method to clear the old paint.

Check out my 24 years of Woodworking database HERE

Now it’s time to test the finish. You can identify finish quality in several ways, such as putting lacquer, alcohol, varnish, and paint remover. First, however, select a small area and apply any one of them for ten to twenty seconds. Then, if paint gets off easily, implement whatever you feel comfortable with. For your information, lacquer can be stripped off by lacquer thinner, and shellac can also be removed with denatured alcohol. Furthermore, if you don’t want to use chemicals based materials, you may use a chemical free method to remove the paint.

Secondly, when the paint gets softened, use the right paint remover to clean the furniture easily. After cleaning the whole surface of the furniture, you will see there are some remaining painted spots. In that case, you need to use other tools like a scraper, sandpaper or sander, etc., to smooth the surface. There is a need to use different types of sandpaper in a different stage, such as initially you need to use 150 grit sandpaper and later 220 grit.

In the end, I must say, gather all the tools while removing the old paint from the furniture. Check the above tool list for this job.

How to remove latex paint from wood furniture?

There is a step by step process on how to remove latex paint from wood furniture. But, first, you need to gather or buy a few most essential stripping latex paint tools and equipment. With these instruments, you can easily remove paint from furniture without damaging the finish. So, let’s check what they are.

• Safety equipment like gloves, goggles and face masks.
• Garbage bags.
• Chemical based stripper.
• Putty knife.
• Mineral spirits.
• Rags.
• Plastic sheets.
• Wire scraper.
• Scraper.

Now check how you can strip latex paint from wood furniture.

First of all, you need to prepare your furniture for cleaning the paint. After that, you need to use a chemical based stripper; it can dissolve latex paint easily. For this job, you need to find out the best paint stripper from the market. I can recommend the most popular strippers like SoyGreen, Citristrip, Safest Stripper, etc. These paint strippers are trustworthy as well.

However, before adding any stripper, you need to wear appropriate safety gear, as mentioned above. At the same time, you have to choose an open area where air and light are 100% working. Furthermore, it’s recommended to work on the floor where the stain isn’t a big deal. Because, during the paint off, the floor might get a permanent stain sign. So, you have to be careful while doing this process.

Now you need to brush the stripper on the latex paint to remove it. Again, you can get the best instruction from the manufacturers. First, however, apply the stripper on the whole wooden surface smoothly with a paintbrush.

After that, leave it for fifteen minutes. During this time, paint soaks the stripper, and it will soften. Here you need to use a scraper carefully to paint off. In this stage, you will find some remaining latex paint on the wood. In that case, whether you need to reapply paint stripper or use sandpaper to remove the remaining paint.

It depends on you what you are going to apply. For example, the chemicals based stripper may damage your furniture, but on the other hand, sanding may save your valuable furniture as well.

In addition, you can use mineral spirits instead above both materials to remove leftover attached paint. In that case, you need to apply the spirit to the whole wooden surface and scrape it.

In the end, use a wet cloth to give it a final finish. And don’t forget to dispose of or throw the wastage in the appropriate place.

How to remove spray paint from wood furniture?

Well, sometimes it’s required to remove spray paint from wood furniture when you feel awkward. Whether it’s graffiti or other spray paint, you need to remove them in order to give it a new alike look. So, let’s check the below process on removing spray paint from wooden furniture.

First of all, wear all the safety equipment and take some acetone solvent. Now pour a certain amount of solvent on a rag and start sweeping on the wooden surface. It’s time to take a break and leave the wood for a couple of minutes. The acetone solvent helps to remove dry spray paint quickly.

However, repeat this process until the wood finish is visible. In the end, clear all spray paint with the rag or water. Furthermore, while putting solvent on the spray paint, don’t smell or get close contact. A large amount of acetone may cause nose irritation, throat, lungs, and eyes problems as well.

Final Thoughts

So now you know how to remove paint from wood furniture but don’t get overwhelmed during the whole paint eliminating process. At the same time, removing paint from wood furniture is time consuming and labor intensive. So you just need to keep patient and carry on working. So let’s try to remove paint from wooden furniture.