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How to repair a White Wash finish? - Printable Version

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How to repair a White Wash finish? - Bob10 - 09-09-2015

I am renovating a kitchen the cabinets have a white wash finish that has seen better days and I am hoping to touch them up but have no idea on how to do it. I have watched youtube videos that all call for bare wood and I am hoping to avoid that. Anyone here have experience with this type thing? Hope to learn something new thanks


Re: How to repair a White Wash finish? - Cooler - 09-09-2015

Whitewash was always just lime and water. I don't think you want to use that.

If you Google "whitewash recipes" they list ones for various applications.

By the way, traditional white wash was used in until the early 1900s to paint roofs on factories in the summer. It kept the roof much cooler and it washed away by the next year so that it would not create issues with re-coating the roof.


Re: How to repair a White Wash finish? - Paul K. Murphy - 09-09-2015

Of all things, I'm at a postseason, single A, ball game right now. First pitch in twenty minutes.
To do your job you will need to glaze with Titanium Dioxide.
Glaze recipe and method later, when I'm not busy at the ballpark.
Are you going on top of nitrocellulose lacquer? That's important.
Bye now.


Re: How to repair a White Wash finish? - Bob10 - 09-09-2015

well sad to say I don't know what is there only thing for sure is it is worn but the cabinets are still solid


Re: How to repair a White Wash finish? - Paul K. Murphy - 09-10-2015

It's late I'm tired. Have a look at this thread to get the concept of evaporatives VS. reactives.
http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads...amp;sb=5&o=
Right about now, start wishing for an evaporative finish on your cabinets. Wish for nitrocellulose lacquer. If that's what you've got, this will be the perfect example for me to demonstrate how to (as I said in that thread) "push it around like wet clay."
If you have nitrocellulose lacquer, a new finish can be put atop the existing finish. They will be one finish. You can do what I've always called, "doping the mix" to address various challenges and obstacles to success. Evaporatives are sometimes referred to as monolithic coating materials. This is because they are ultimately one coat, hence the prefix "mono." If your current finish is being a naughty boy, and if it is nitrocellulose lacquer, there is most likely no need to strip. New coatings can be mixed and doped to give the existing finish and the new finish (they're the same thing, doncha know) the desired quality.
If you have a reactive finish, things are going to be a wee bit more difficult. A cured reactive finish will NOT rewet. It will NOT mix with the new coat. If it's doing its job properly, it will resist chemical contaminants like the proverbial water off a duck's back. Your new finish coating will be that newly introduced chemical contaminant.
A "hot" rag; one wet with lacquer thinner, should quickly soften nitrocellulose lacquer. It will remove it in ideal conditions. Try that on an unseen spot. In a kitchen, the most common reactive finish would be catalyzed lacquer. Sometimes it's pre-cat, and sometimes a two part mix. Conversion varnish is far more common these days, but you did say, "it has seen better days, blah blah blah." The whitewash finish was also a little more popular a while back.
Find somebody knowledgable at a paint store, bring them a door, and ask them.
Summary: You need to determine if you've got an evaporative or a reactive finish on the existing.
Pray for evaporative.


Re: How to repair a White Wash finish? - Bob10 - 09-10-2015

Thanks I will pull a door off and take it to the store