How to refinish the furniture.

We may need to do refinishing on furniture products for various reasons. Mostly we need to refinishing the old furniture when we want to have new looked because we're bored with his performance or to adjust with the new room decoration. Refinishing is also required when we have to repair the furniture damage. We also need to refinish the old finish when we need the new finishing new specification. There are many reason to do the refinishing but basically there 2 way to do refinishing for the old finish. First is refinishing with strip off the old finish and the second is without strip off the old finish. We already post article about the refinishing without strip off the old finish, see our previous post: Refinish furniture without strip off the old finish. And in this article we want to share about how to refinishing the old finish by strip off the old finish and start new finishing process.

Here is the step to refinish the old finish.

• Check and observe the condition of furniture

A refinishing process will take time and cost, the refinishing process is more costly than the finishing process to the fresh product. Therefore, before deciding to do it, we should do a cost calculations consider to the aspects in the existing stuff. Make sure that the refinishing process we will do is worth. Check and see the condition of the  product such as: the construction, quality of wood, model, etc. Do the repair and revision to the product first if necessary. Make sure that the product is in good condition and still can be used before decide to refinish the stuff.

• Strip off the old finish

The first step is to remove the old finishing layer on the furniture to get a clean wood surface.  We can use thinner to wash and clean the finishing layer that dry without chemical reaction such as: lacquer, NC, shellac, water based and some type of varnish. We better try use this method first since it is much easier to do than chemically method. Use cloth dampens with lacquer thinner or acetone to rub and remove the existing finishing layer. Wet the finishing layer with thinner for awhile, if the finish layer is solved and can be erased easily then continue to wash off the whole old finish.
However, if the existing finish layer cannot be wash off with thinner then we need to do with chemical stripper. Apply a paint remover on the finishing layer and let it for few minutes until the finish layer is peel off . Use a knife stripper to get finishing off from the wood surface. The finishing that still left on the surface can be cleaned with the thinner. We have to strip off the old finish until we obtain the clean surface. (see our previous article : How to strip off the old finishing)

• Prepare a new finishing process

When we decide to do a refinishing process, we should already have a finishing with color, appearance and quality we want to follow. Make a step panel according to the new finish to be used as a guide in the new finishing process. Prepare the materials and equipments we need for the new finishing process and make sure they are already available and can be used properly.

• Do the new finishing process.

The new finishing process can be started after the stuff is clean. Make sure that the wood surface is already completely clean. The old finishing material that is left on the wood may not compatible with the new finishing materials and cause on some problems. Use cloth dampened with paint thinner and re washing the wood surface to clean up the residual dirt and chemical that may still exist. Re sanding the wood surface to make a flat and smooth surface. Fix the unfinished wood problem such as: crack, scratch, dents, etc.
The refinishing process is very similar to the finishing process to the fresh furniture. But  we need to understand that  the wood surface obtained from the old finish may not as clean as the fresh wood. The stain from the old finish can be absorbed into the wood and very difficult to be totally washed off. The stain also can fill into the pores and grain of wood and cannot be completely cleaned. It may slightly affect the the appearance of new finishes that will be generated. Therefore, the process in the refinishing process should be based on the wood after it has been stripped off.