Kitchen Renovation: Stripping Paint, Varnish for Wood Window Trim

Friday, December 17, 2021

Window Trim After Citristrip Window Trim After Citristrip

The "before" for this now wood-clad window would be some dingy shade of off-white that is chipping in various places (the paint is always chipping around here). So, rather than just paint over it as most sane people would do, I decided to pursue the arduous process of removing all the layers of paint with Citristrip, a paint stripper. I generally followed instructions like these from SimplyRefinished, although with the addition of letting it sit overnight under plastic wrap, and following the process twice in order to get all the paint off. First, I would cover the painted trim with Citrstrip, and then wrap it in plastic wrap over night. The next day, I'd remove the plastic and use a plastic scraped to remove the first several layers of paint, and then repeat the process for a second time. The last day, I scrub the wood with Steel Wool dipped in Citristrip, and then scrub it all down with a rag dipped in mineral spirits. The Citristrip process looks a bit like this:

Citristrip to remove 70 year old paint layers Citristrip to remove 70 year old paint layers
Citristrip to remove 70 year old paint layers

Once the various colors of pink and beige paint came off, I was quite surprised to find this beautiful wood grain (also shown in top photos):

Window Trim After Citristrip

What was next up was sanding/scraping the remaining paint & Citristrip from the crevices, and then picking a stain color...


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