About Stripped & Stained
Last updated · 2026-09-18
What this site is
Stripped & Stained is a working notebook for furniture refinishing and upcycling. Every entry is a job that actually went across a bench: what arrived, what was wrong with it, which stripper was used, which abrasives in which order, what finish went back on and what it cost.
There is no shop and nothing for sale. The bench notes exist because the useful part of this trade is never in the marketing copy — it is in the grit sequence, the drying window and the two things that went wrong before the third try worked.
How a record is made
Pieces are photographed and measured before anything is touched. The exploded plate at the top of each project is a line drawing, not a photograph, so the construction is legible: how the carcass is jointed, where the veneer was laid, which parts are solid and which are ground.
- Substrate is identified by lifting a drawer, looking at an unfinished edge and testing a hidden spot with a drop of denatured alcohol.
- Old finish removal is recorded by product family, dwell time and method — never by brand alone, because formulations change.
- Every abrasive step is logged, including the ones that turned out to be a waste of an hour.
- Costs are quoted in CNY for materials only; labour is recorded as hours at the bench, because that is the figure that decides whether a job was worth doing.
What we do not do
No valuations, no attribution and no claims about what a piece is worth after refinishing. Refinishing a genuinely antique piece can destroy most of its value; if a piece looks earlier than 1850, or carries a maker's stamp, the right advice is to stop and talk to a conservator rather than read a blog.
Nothing here is a substitute for the manufacturer's instructions on a tin of stripper, nor for a conservation assessment on a piece with provenance.
Contact
Corrections, contradictions and better methods are all welcome at [email protected].
Questions, corrections or a removal request: [email protected]