a barrel of this: house: Medicine Cabinet 1, Peel Away 0

Medicine Cabinet 1, Peel Away 0

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 14:46:00 -0700

Or, why maybe I will suddenly decide “shabby chic”, which usually makes me roll my eyes when I see it on eBay, is okay.

At some point in every project, you stop and ask yourself why you thought refinishing the table was necessary, or why the idea of doing your own plumbing was a good one, or, in this case, why you thought you should keep the old medicine cabinet. My moment came when I was attempting to scrape off about 60 years of paint with some Peel Away and a scraper that was too big to fit where I needed it to go. I think the other 40 years are still on the thing, so I will have to do another application, if not more.

Things I learned:

- you can apply the stripper with nice clothes on, but if you start removing it while wearing your favorite not-really-pants, you will get paint/remover goo on them.

- if you move fast, you can salvage your pants. And then change into some clothes you don’t care about.

- stripping brushes are overrated.

- Peel Away is much more fun to use on glass (and much less messy).

- close up the toothbrush head holder BEFORE you start removing the stripper.

- the fact that the contractor installed the cabinet upside down is kind of okay since you can more easily work on the top.

- a half-stripped medicine cabinet smells kind of bad.

Anyway, pictures of the fun and games over here in the usual place. More to come when I go for round two.

"Medicine Cabinet 1, Peel Away 0" by K

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 08:12:52 -0700

Well, there are a million types of Peel Away, including Peel Away 1, 6, 7 and 21. You can read about the different types over on theDumond Chemicals site: http://www.dumondchemicals.com/html/peelaway2.htm#1.

I have a bucket of 6 just because I might want to actually stain some wood if I get down to it (1 works well but makes the wood black in the process so you only want to use it for things you will paint). I am not sure about metal since I haven’t tried it on that yet, but the website seems to indicate you could use 7 and 8 on metal.

Two friends of mine cleaned and painted all of their radiators (I saw them last weekend and they look great) and I will ask them what they used and let you know. They are the experts as far as I am concerned.

I am in Lindsay’s boat, though (and I feel your pain, Lindsay). Right now I am thinking I am just going to paint this damn cabinet if I can ever find the actual wood! Today is Grout Sealing Day, though, which is a pain enough so I am not dealing with the cabinet yet.

"Medicine Cabinet 1, Peel Away 0" by AJS

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 12:31:23 -0700

I too have enjoyed reading your great blog. I’m a fellow Petworthian and am about to embark on my own set of paint-stripping adventures.

Do you know if Peel Away works on all surfaces—including radiator metal?

Thanks!

"Medicine Cabinet 1, Peel Away 0" by Lindsay

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:31:36 -0700

Okay, your blog is uncannily close to the experiences that my boyfriend Markus and I are having with our house in Petworth! We just moved into our place on Illinois Ave in March and we’re tackling similar issues (including transom windows that were just painted over). I also just spent about three weeks scraping paint off the woodwork in the one bathroom we have (including the medicine cabinet) so that I could stain it close to the darker brown wood downstairs. Let me tell you, what first started out being a “brilliant” idea is now a major pain in the ass. But, I keep telling myself it’ll be worth it in the end….

Just figured I’d commiserate with you!