I'm working on upcycling a new piece. It's a fabulous chest. I wanted to stain the top instead of painting it and started by sanding it. Well...I got worried because I didn't want all of the wood's natural imperfections to be removed via sanding so I decided I'd strip it instead using Citristrip.

It was my first time using it and it was relatively easy. The most difficult part was letting it sit for 30 minutes.

So...using a paintbrush, I brushed it on the top pretty liberally. After 30 minutes, I scraped off the gunk using my painter's tool which is seriously the best thing ever for doing so much by way of DIY. Red Devil's Painter's Tool.

And then voila! It was ready to stain. I used a stiff bristle brush to get the scraped bits in the grooves and, since I was in the sun...it dried relatively quickly.

This was seriously the easiest thing ever. Stripping paint is tedious and generally icky. This was easy and with a pleasant smell to boot. GO ME! LOL!

T-Monnie...Not Your Mommy's Tee-Tee