Does Denatured Alcohol Clean Furnttyure For Refinishing

Remember back when Robert and I stripped our fireplace drapery and I was in love with the Citristrip we used? Well, that relationship has run its course and subsequently this last furniture stripping project, it's time for a breakup. Sorry Citristrip. It's y'all, not me. And just like every hard break-up, I turned to alcohol to get me through it. Denatured alcohol that is. (Har har. Come on now, this is a family-friendly weblog.)

I was trying to strip the wood stain from this chair but it turned into a gunky mess! Little did I know that denatured alcohol to strip wood was the secret I was missing!

Yesterday I posted about my mid-strip progress, or lack thereof, and I finally had to telephone call it a day after 24 hours of scraping the stubborn gummy residuum that made a complete mess and nonetheless didn't want to budge. Citristrip did dandy on latex paint before, only it was no match for twoscore twelvemonth old varnish. The Citristrip characterization said to clean up the residue with mineral spirits, but later hours of applying, scrubbing, and a few dollars shorter later, it still wasn't much better.

Hither's a shot of the chair legs right afterwards applying the Citristrip. I was blissfully unaware at this bespeak. I was and then mad nigh the pasty gunk later that I didn't even take a picture of it. Trust me on this one; it was bad.

Ever have this kind of mess when trying to strip wood stain? No one likes a sticky, gunky mess!

I searched high and low through resource after resource to figure out a solution for the disaster I created and came upward with a few solutions but nothing that really worked. Several sources I found said to try another glaze or two of stripper. And my thoughts were "No freaking way! I tin can't do it once more. I need a shortcut." (Shortcuts usually pb to more disaster when it comes to home improvement, only I proved that lesson wrong in this scenario…thankfully.)

I reached the betoken where I didn't even care that the furniture still had some leftover stain and varnish. I simply wanted the residue gone so that I could prime and be done with it. Then if you find yourself in a gummy, gunky stripping mess like I did, here is the solution that I figured out through trial and mistake.

The answer to my Citristrip disaster:

This Klean Strip denatured alcohol saved my project! It makes the stripping process SO much easier!

Denatured Alcohol! Check out that beautiful gunk-gratis forest! Mineral spirits didn't piece of work. Goof off didn't work. Goo Gone didn't work. Sanding didn't work. Warm soapy water made it stickier. Boosted stripper just caused a bigger mess (these chairs had a LOT of varnish). But when I swiped on the denatured alcohol, I could well-nigh hear angels singing. Saying a footling prayer for patience probably helped as well. And then subsequently a skilful wipe downwardly of denatured booze and using a pocket-sized brass wire brush to work it in the lilliputian crevices, I finally saw light at the end of the tunnel. To exist safe since at that place are a few varnish spots withal left, I'grand giving the wood a glaze of oil based primer, Kilz Original.

I've never been so happy to take an later shot in my life.

Before using denatured alcohol to strip wood stain on this chair.

After using denatured alcohol to strip wood stain on this chair -- look at how clean that is!

I'm then glad to finally be done with that outset footstep, but whenever I have a DIY fiasco happen, I have to look on the bright side that at least I learned a skill to always keep in mind for any other projects from here on out.