The day I spent stripping.
Good title, right?!? I thought of it when I was stripping.
Not that kind of stripping. Duh.
Stripping paint. Yep. Me. Stripping paint. ALL. DAY. LONG.
Picture this, I’m outside with my stripping gear (clear plastic glasses/goggles, yellow gloves up to my elbows, mask, and of course…my ipod) in the dead of the afternoon. It was hot. It was so, so hot. And I was so not. I was SO.NOT.HOT.
I’ve been trying to come up with projects for the house that I can do over summer vacation. I’ve tackled quite a bit, but there was one thing I was dying to get my hands on for a while now.
Remember when I wrote about our inspiration for the basement? What about this post about barn doors?
Since we started the discussion of the basement the husband wanted a rustic barn door on sliders to open/close off the laundry room. So, that is where our inspiration started and we went from there. Well, probably a month into the project I realized that we would be replacing our old bulkhead door with a new one. I feel silly it took me this long to realize…but….look at our old bulkhead door (it faced outside….and it’s nasty):
I was DETERMINED to make that door mine. The husband wasn’t as convinced and thought he should build a new barn door. His thoughts started to shift halfway through the project and we did some shopping at antique stores to see if we could find the perfect door. I kept saying that I wanted to strip down the old door and see what it would look like. He continued to be less than amused by the idea, but eventually agreed that I could try it and we could hang it up for a while and see how it looked. I don’t think he had my vision.
So, this week I decided it was time. With the hurt puppy and painters in our basement I couldn’t stray far from home. The husband picked me up the supplies and I could get ‘er done.
First, the door went for a ride on the sawhorse (I first wrote horsesaw, and I thought that didn’t look right —- haha!). Under the door we placed a tarp to catch all of the nasty chemicals.
I got all of my necessary (and goofy looking) materials:
I needed my trusty brush for application. The bottle recommended using some sort of metal tin to put the paint stripper in when applying. I tried that using this old metal box, but it was useless. I found I was much more successful and efficient if I just poured the stuff directly on the door.The directions lied to me….and it wouldn’t be the only time they were dishonest.
After applying the product the directions steered me wrong again! They recommended applying the product and allowing it to set for a while. Up to 24 hours! So, I thought I would give it a good 2 - 3 hours to set before going back to peel. On to the application:
And this is where things turned ugly. Really ugly. I gave it a few hours and returned to work. Now, it was hot that day, so the directions may not be taking into account when it is hot and the door is in direct sunlight. Regardless, I waited about 2 - 3 hours when they recommended you can wait up to 24.
It was hot. The work was HARD. I mean, really hard. I have bruises on my fingers and on the palm of my hand (who knew you could get a bruise on the palm of your hand?!?! that’s what she said).
It was so challenging that I didn’t take pictures of the process. I refused to give up. Right when I started to apply the product my neighbor stopped over and made a comment about how difficult stripping paint was. That, in conjunction with the husbands feelings on the door gave me all the motivation I needed.
I scraped for about 2 1/2 hours before thinking I should try something new. So, I poured on more of the product and went to take a shower. Yep, I had to shower halfway through the job. That is how hot I was.
When I returned about 30 minutes later I got right to work. To my surprise, it just started to come right off! Granted, it was still a process and hard work, but nothing like what I had been doing earlier. So I continued for the next couple hours….and I was super psyched with the result.
Our original plan was for a rustic wood door without paint. As stated earlier in this post, I had considered a colored barn door but the hubs wasn’t as thrilled with the idea.
WELL, as I stripped off the brown poo color of the door, I discovered underneath was a blue color. While I wasn’t over the moon in love with the color at the beginning, as I continued to strip I realized that I could create a worn barn door look my taking off edges of the blue paint to show through to the wood. I used the little brush (seen in the materials photo) to get this effect.I tried to be somewhat particular about where I scraped off the paint, as I wanted to make it look original.
When the hubster pulled in I wasn’t sure how he would react. I had a feeling he would like it once he saw it.
And I was right! He LOVED it! Yay!
Voila:
Here it is in the basement, but not set on sliders yet:
What do you think? Should we keep stripping or is the color good as is?!? My only hesitation is that it defines the room as it is a pretty strong statement. I like having neutrals because you can easily change around the feeling of the room with accessories. This is a big statement….although the husbster did make the point that we could always paint it and strip it again. He’s always thinking….
