It’s a rare house that doesn’t have a drop of paint
on original quarter-sawn oak or Douglas fir woodwork. Conversely, many homes built before 1950 were trimmed with wood that was specifically paint-grade—meaning it is supposed to be painted. The trouble comes in when incompatible paints or finishes (literally) gumuptheworks. Surface problems are legion (calcimine paint, anyone?) Here, we’ll explore how two different homeowners approached the stripping process. In the first house, a late-19th-century transitional Colonial Revival, Stacy Grinsfelder struggles with an incompatible coating over paint-grade wood. In the second project, Gina Bellous laboriously strips casings, doors, and baseboards in an 1895 Queen Anne. Her goal is to stain and varnish the hand-stripped wood. (That’s a story we plan to publish in a future issue). —MARY ELLEN POLSON
“When I passed my Cobra infrared paint remover across these gorgeous accents today, I heard a cracking sound and areas of latex paint popped right off. I think it’s the staircase’s way of giving me a gift, since the balusters are going to
