Heads up on that 'quick' milk paint over old varnish job

What I thought would be a simple weekend strip and recoat on a 1920s dresser turned into a full 8-day saga of chemical strippers, endless scraping, and three separate grain-raising sessions just to get a surface ready for the new finish.

3 comments

3 Comments

evahenderson2mo ago

Ugh, brutal. @jamie_webb67 is right, that old finish never really leaves. Some projects just fight you every step.

jamie_webb672mo ago

Heard milk paint can be a nightmare over old finishes. That varnish probably soaked in way deeper than you thought. Sounds like you earned that dresser the hard way.

kai_webb912mo ago

Tell that to the dresser that fought back harder than @evahenderson's last DIY project. Guess some furniture just doesn't want to be saved.