Old Staircase Poly or paint?

thepill1 · 05-30-2011, 10:30 PM

Hello,
I have a 200 year old beautiful staircase that has been painted multiple times. I have begun stripping the paint off with a liquid paint stripper; its going well so for. I planned on painting the treads some color and the risers white. But now i want to stain the treads with poly. No matter how much stripping and sanding I do there will be SOME white paint on the stairs. How will it look with litlle random spots of white underneath? MAybe a lot of paint? I am going for an antique look.

jsheridan · 05-31-2011, 04:26 AM

You've tackled quite a project there. With a series of paper grits, you should be able to get it to stain condition. However, a customer of mine has a built-in kitchen hutch that dates to about the 1830's. He set about stripping it with open flame. As he went along, he began exposing about twelve different colors. He decided to continue just randomly exposing the long series of colors rather than complete removal. He now has a calico look to the hutch. It a faux faux finish, if you will. I asked if it was faux. It's fascinating to view the historical record of the hutch's lifetime from that perspective. Some of the most interesting looks happen by accident or experimentation.

Blondesense · 05-31-2011, 12:46 PM

I refinished several old five panel doors. Stripped multiple layers of paint and then used poly. Luckily it was in an old rustic Oklahoma farm house because there were gouges and paint left in the surface.

I would recommend you leave enough that it looks intentional rather than a mistake. Perhaps you could sand and strip the center of the tread more, leaving the residue on the edges. That way it would look like it was "worn" that way.

thepill1 · 06-01-2011, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blondesense

I refinished several old five panel doors. Stripped multiple layers of paint and then used poly. Luckily it was in an old rustic Oklahoma farm house because there were gouges and paint left in the surface.

I would recommend you leave enough that it looks intentional rather than a mistake. Perhaps you could sand and strip the center of the tread more, leaving the residue on the edges. That way it would look like it was "worn" that way.

Thank you.