An Unwanted Discovery
All the second floor doors on the carriage house have glass transom windows. All caked with paint. Cody removed one and I was highly curious as to what was under all the crappy paint jobs. Oh! Oh! The paint came off easily and revealed wood which had originally been shellacked. Ross happy! But…
…my joy was soon dashed upon the rocks as the OTHER side revealed a very different story. The paint proved hard to remove, and then…ugh…a seemingly original layer of milk paint (impervious to paint stripper) in a faux bois finish was unearthed. Fuck.
The faux bois finish faced the bedroom.
The shellac finish faced the hall.
What will the other bedrooms reveal?
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Doesn’t milk paint come off with vinegar? I hope this helps.
I guess you’re going to have to learn to do faux bois finish. I have faux bois on the inside of the door leading to my “library”, what used to be the original owner’s office. The room is paneled in mahogany but the door was painted with a fake wood treatment. Now I know what it is. The closet door is painted the same way on the outside, not the inside.
I have a transom window in my bedroom only it is on an exterior wall, not over the door. I thought it was kinda odd at first but now I love it. It is high up so it affords me privacy from the neighbors but plenty of air circulation when open, and there is enough room underneath to have a bureau with a mirror. I bought a brass thing for grabbing the latch on the window and put it on the end of an old wooden handle, just like the ones we used to have in school for the old bungalow classrooms.
I loathe milk paint with the heat of a thousand suns, which also would not remove it. It is ugly and awful and an abomination. That is all. Over.
lol 🙂
Oh no! Milky faux bois finish! Abomination indeed & e ho Barb Sanford’s comments!
Echo Barb Sanford! Not e ho! 🙁
What you uncovered on the bedroom side of the frame is the same finish as on the inside of the closet doors under the eaves. It’s a thick, amateur faux….thing. Probably never looked that well polished from day one. Upon removal of the hardware from them, it’s just bare, unfinished wood.
I will not feel bad about making the room better with a fresh coat of paint next month. It will be exciting to have the hallway return to a natural shellac finish though!
Ugh. Milk paint is crap. It can be loosened somewhat with ammonia, though.
For safety, take it outside, rough it up with a wire brush & give it a good ammonia soak then, scrape away – more wire brushing with borax detergent can help in the scrapping & cleaning, as well.
Depending how it was applied, you may still end up having to sand it anyway.
Here’s to finding no more milk painted surprises! 🍀
Never had to deal with milk paint before – didn’t realize how awful it was. Poor u guys… :/
I came across this info on how to remove milk paint. I have no idea if the stuff really works or not.
https://www.realmilkpaint.com/blog/tips/how-to-remove-milk-paint/
https://www.realmilkpaint.com/shop/strippers-removers/paint/
Aside from having to sand it to bare wood, would anyone really burn for eternity if you did just that and then shellacked the inside? What is the finish on the inside of the door, and the rest of the bedroom trim? Cody states that it appears amateurish from the get-go, so IMO, I don’t see any harm in improving on what was there.