When your house is as small as ours, there are not a lot of “discoveries” – old pieces of furniture in the attic left by a previous owner, concealed art glass windows, old newspapers or plans in the rafters - so when I make a discovery, no matter how small it is, I tend to get excited.
In between stripping stints on the bedroom door, I started stripping the hardware for that door. I boiled vinegar and poured it over the hinges in a small pyrex dish. I waited several minutes and, with a toothbrush, I started pealing off layers of paint. The first 5 layers came off pretty easily. The last layer was tough and took about an hour to scrape off. I am experiencing the same thing (difficulty in removing the final layer of paint) while stripping the door. It seems like the door and hinges were painted with something different than what they painted the rest of the room with.
After getting down to the actual finish, I saw something very different from the dull, worn, hardware seen throughout the rest of the house. The hinges still have their nice shiny brass plate. It looks great and seems to prove my theory that the entire home was once fitted with polished brass hardware throughout. Some of it still exists on our buffet and there are remnants of shiny bits all over the existing hardware. It would be great to re-plate all of the hardware but unfortunately that isn’t in the budget right now. It sure would look great though.
This might be the only part of the house where I am glad that something original was painted over.
2 comments:
That last bit of paint may be milk paint. I've never met a more stubborn paint in my life!
Oh gosh, I just love what you just shared. I had no idea that those things could be boiled and cleaned that way. I live in a 65 ranch in Indiana and our hardware on some of the doors is painted over. No I'm not talking nice stuff, but it sure would look better if it were shiny and not paint chipped.
Thank you!
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