Holidays Uncovered - Drawer Pulls - Remove Them Before Stripping and Repainting Your Drawers

It's time to redo them in a color that is more of what you like today. You also liked big hair and leg warmers back then, while they were nice in the 80's when you got the place. You're finally completely sick of the color of your kitchen cabinets.

Might as well just do it to start with. To clean off the paint, instead you'll probably end up having to take the drawer pulls off at that point anyway. It won't likely happen. Painting around the drawer pulls without making a mess, then once that's done, imagine the mess of trying to strip the paint around the drawer pulls. You don't want to try to work around the drawer pulls and knobs. The first part of this project is disassembling these cabinets.

You don't need dirt and debris getting in the way of the stripper trying to do its work. You need to clean the items before adding the paint stripper, once all the hardware is off the cabinets and drawers.

The best way to do this project is to take the pieces that you can outside. Make sure to cover the other things in the room that are not meant to be stripped, if you are doing this job inside. But any painted surface it touches, that doesn't just mean the paint that you are intentionally putting it on. You are working with stuff that is going to eat through paint, remember. Now prep the workspace.

Read the instructions to find out how long you should wait. How long that will take will depend on the stripper you have selected for your project. Then let it do its job. Don't be stingy. You will put an ample amount of the stripper on the wood. Most strippers are relatively easy to use.

You may have to wait a little longer, if not. The wood is ready to strip, if so. The paint should start to come up on the scraper. Push along part of the painted surface, using a plastic paint scraper. See if it worked, before you wipe the whole thing off.

And then put another layer of stripper on what's left and let it do it's magic, just remove what you can, don't let it get to you. Or that it's just stubborn, this could be because they had a thicker coat of paint there. But some areas will stay painted, sometimes you will get one layer of paint off. Don't expect it all to come off, when you are ready to strip the wood.

And enjoy your new kitchen, reattach the drawer pulls and other hardware pieces, paint it that color you had long wanted. Now it's ready to be worked into a new wonder. Then leave it for a day or so to dry. You need to clean the wood with either lacquer thinner or denatured alcohol, once all the old paint has been removed.

Until they are disposed of as they are very flammable and sometimes known to spontaneously combust, with a lid, should be stored in a metal container, paper and other items that have had the paint stripper on it, all the rags, note: After stripping the paint.