Let’s face it, stripping a piece of furniture can be a pain in the bottom. But… there are times you just want the original wood to shine and put the paint can aside. I know I do. I love the look of beautiful vintage wood and mixing it in with my painted pieces. There is something lovely about old wood that makes me happy.
It’s been a while since I used a traditional furniture stripper (I tend to sand instead of strip) and when I saw the Easy Off oven cleaner hack all over the internet I decided to give it a whirl. One weekend I was at the cottage this summer I grabbed a can of heavy-duty Easy Off and some gloves and headed outside.
This little plant stand was in desperate need of help and it became the guinea pig for my Easy Off. It belonged to my great-grandmother and is something that I absolutely want to keep but boy has it seen better days. The top was completely water-stained but the bones of this little gem were still great.
I started by giving the plant stand a very, very generous coat of Easy Off. Two tips here… make sure you are working outside if you try this and make sure you are wearing gloves! Once I had the plant stand covered with Easy Off I let it sit for a good 30 minutes. I probably should have left it longer but I was a little too impatient and wanted to see what was happening 🙂
Honestly, it really didn’t look like much had happened. The stain looked just as dark and frankly didn’t look any different. I started scrubbing though and boy did that help.
It was still quite hard to tell how much stain was coming off because the wood was wet and looked the same but I could tell from the water that something was definitely happening.
After scrubbing as much as possible, I used the garden hose to spray the whole piece with water. This was the easiest way to get everything off that was still left.
After spraying the plant stand, I let it sit in the sun for a little bit so that the water had a chance to dry a bit. After about 20 minutes I repeated everything again. I sprayed it all over with the Easy Off, left it for another 30 – 40 minutes, and then scrubbed.
After spraying the piece with the hose the second time I let it sit in the sun for a few hours. This really, really made a difference and once the wood was dry it was amazing how different it looked. It really was night and day.
To finish it off, I gave the wood a light sanding and then used some Hemp Oil to nourish it.
I really can’t believe how beautiful this little plant stand is now. I love the light colour of the wood and how pretty it looks.
I’m really glad that I tried the Easy Off hack but I would caution that it took a lot of time and elbow grease. I don’t think I would ever use this method on a large piece of furniture; you would be scrubbing for hours and hours. On a small piece like this though, it worked beautifully.
Let me know if you try (or have tried) the Easy Off and what you thought! I’d love to know.
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