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 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.