The house has beautiful natural woodwork.  In the kitchen and bathrooms, the woodwork was painted, which is common, though often they were originally natural.  I returned some, but not all, back to a natural wood finish.  I like getting this done in the beginning phase of the job; that way I won’t get a surprise about how long it takes, and, I assure you, it can be a process!  It’s also very gratifying.  In this case, it wasn’t too bad, since there were only 3 layers of paint over the original shellac finish, which makes it easier.

In the downstairs kitchen, the paint’s adhesion was compromised, which helped make the choice to strip.

I do a combination of stripping techniques.  First I will scrape the edges of the trim and the jam, then use a heat gun for the molding and open field work.  Finally, I’ll use a chemical stripper.

the bathroom and pantry doors in the stripping process

The downstairs bathroom is where the service stairs used to be.  There is a lovely yet modest built-in cabinet.

Curiosity got the best of me!  Had to strip it to see what was hidden underneath… a beautiful pine door.  I’ll leave the frame and bathroom trim painted, but happy to have the door natural.

I got lucky with the third floor baseboard.  It was relatively easy to carefully scrape the paint off, then sand and shellac.

Two windows and their frames were stripped, as well.

Done!