Most people think of us as a door stripping company, which is fair enough – that’s in the name. But a big part of what we do is furniture. Pine chests of drawers, kitchen dressers, wardrobes, chairs, tables, sideboards, blanket boxes. If it’s solid wood and it’s been painted, there’s a good chance we can strip it back and make it look fantastic.
This post is about the furniture side of things – what we strip, how it works, and why so many people across Manchester, Liverpool, Preston and the wider North West are getting their old painted furniture restored rather than replacing it.
Why Strip Pine Furniture?
Most Victorian and Edwardian furniture was made from solid pine or pitch pine. It’s genuinely good quality wood, built to last, and a lot of it has lasted – well over a hundred years in some cases. The problem is it got painted at some point. Sometimes multiple times. People either didn’t like the look of pine, or they were following fashion, or they inherited a piece and just painted it to match the room.
Strip that paint back and what you’ve got is a completely different piece of furniture. The grain comes through, the colour warms up, and something that looked like a tired old painted chest suddenly looks like something you’d see in a shop for several hundred pounds.
A lot of our customers pick up furniture at car boot sales or auctions knowing it’s been painted and knowing there’s something worth having underneath. Others have inherited pieces that have been in the family for years. Either way, stripping it back is almost always worth it.
What Types of Furniture Do We Strip?
We strip pretty much anything that will fit in the dip tank. The most common things we see are:
Chests of drawers: Pine chests are probably the most common piece we do. We remove the drawers, strip everything separately, then the customer puts it back together. The transformation is usually dramatic – especially if there are multiple layers of old gloss or emulsion on there.
Kitchen dressers: These are big pieces and we love doing them. A stripped pine kitchen dresser is a really striking piece of furniture and they’re very sought after. We’ve stripped some that had four or five layers of paint on them, and the wood underneath has been in brilliant condition.
Chairs: Ladder back chairs, carver chairs, Windsor chairs. Painted chairs are very common and strip back beautifully. We often do sets of four or six for people who’ve picked them up at an auction.
Tables: Kitchen tables, side tables, occasional tables. We can strip the tops and the legs. Some tables have a mix of different woods, which can look really nice once stripped.
Wardrobes and bedroom furniture: Painted bedroom sets are very common. Stripping a matching wardrobe, chest and bedside tables can transform a bedroom completely.
Blanket boxes and chests: These strip back really nicely. Good solid pine, often with nice moulding detail that comes up well after dipping.
Sideboards: A stripped pine sideboard is a great statement piece. We’ve done some beautiful ones over the years and the customer reaction is always the same – they can’t believe it’s the same piece.
How the Stripping Process Works for Furniture
We use a caustic dip tank, the same process as for doors. The piece goes into the tank and the caustic solution breaks down the paint and lifts it off the wood. It gets into every bit of the detail – carved panels, turned legs, mouldings, all of it. You can’t do that by hand without spending days on it.
With furniture we do take extra care around joints. Caustic solution can soften old hide glue if a piece is left in too long, so we keep a close eye on things and don’t just leave furniture soaking unattended. Once it comes out it gets rinsed and neutralised properly.
After stripping the customer can either collect it as is and finish it themselves, or we can hand sand it for them ready for oiling or waxing. Most people go for a hard wax oil finish these days which gives a really nice result and is easy to maintain.
What About Jointed Furniture?
We get asked this a lot. The answer is that most solid pine furniture is fine because pine furniture is robust and the dipping time is controlled. We’ve never had a piece fall apart on us. That said, if something is already loose or has obvious structural issues, we’ll mention it before we strip it rather than have anyone disappointed.
Flat-pack or MDF furniture can’t be stripped – it just dissolves. But genuine solid wood furniture, even quite delicate pieces, is generally absolutely fine.
Where We Cover
We’re based in the North West and strip furniture for customers from Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Preston, Blackpool, Bolton, Wigan, Warrington and everywhere in between. Some customers bring the furniture to us, others want us to collect – get in touch and we’ll sort something out.
Get in Touch
If you’ve got a piece of painted pine furniture you’d like stripped, give us a call on 07375 369191 or email info@northwestdoorstripping.co.uk. Send us a photo if you can and we’ll give you a quote. Most furniture jobs are very reasonably priced and the results speak for themselves.
