Sunday, July 13, 2014

Lamps, stripping and cleaning ....



So here is this little guy, remember i posted about him a while ago here with my never ending lamp addiction.  Well i finally got around to giving him a new life.  Whilst I'm all for a good patina on something, this was a bad paint job on a great lamp. You will also see another 2 industrial lamps getting a face lift during this post but in true blogger style i forgot to take the before shots, trust me when i say they look a lot better in the after shots.

Here is the messy part, spraying or painting them with the chemical paint remover.  I put them in a large plastic bag so as to try and contain the spray and also protect everything else around it.  Doing it outside is best but we live in manhattan so thats not always the easiest.  If your inside make sure to but a good drop cloth then plastic down as the spray paint remover is strong stuff.  Trust me you don't want this on anything else in your apt, or your skin for that matter.  Again trust me what begins as a weird tingling turns in to a burning pretty quickly.  Wear some really glamorous gloves at all times.  Also you can be the crazy person on the street taking paint off your lamp!

The essentials.
1. Lots of paper, i always grab the free papers lying around.
2. A good wire brush
3. Scraper, you don't need a fancy one as most of this stuff gets messy
4.Sprayable paint remover or paintable remover.

Now depending on the project sort of defines how toxic you need to go.  If its light paint then you can use a more friendly citri strip which is non caustic and biodegradableThis is definitely the route to try first before getting into something stronger.  I do like the citri strip but it may take a few more coats of the stuff

Here is another lamp getting its paint removed.  Oh and the glamorous rubber gloves.  Green is my color!

Its looks disgusting and it is.  If you are doing this then really do it, i tackled three lamps at once as once you make the mess you might as well get on with a bunch of projects.  The other essential is old rags.  I always end up buying some at home depot when i am there so you can just throw them away.  It gets really messy at this stage, slimy and gross.  So wear old clothes and just be prepared to get in a mess.  Always have something around to wipe your hands on.

Here the above lamp in its raw metal state, which if you know me, i love.  Anything rusty, hence arduous rust! 


Now the magic! Thats my dremmel in the left corner with the wire brush attachment.  This does wonders.  It shines the metal up and really makes the item come to life (oh and my knee).  You will end up going through a few of these wire brushes on the dremmel so i also use a harsher and larger wire attachment for the drill.  Its noisy but does a very good job of taking the remaining finish off and also revealing the raw metal.

Here we go.  This guy after its chemical peel and then wire brushing, and a good dremmeling.  He is beautiful! So pleased with the way it came out, and the details that emerge when you remove the paint.  Im not to much of a perfectionist when it comes to these projects as its great to still see some patina, whether it be rust or old paint, so on the other lamps there is some parts that still have a little something left on them.


Me looking my best sweating and wearing rubber gloves.  The old converse on the table are essential to paint stripping, always have them on the table (!) 


Look at this one, love him! After the dremmeling you get more of a polished look but yet it keeps so  much patina as not all the rust comes off.  Have a go!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...