How to Refinish Small Furniture with Oven Cleaner

Today I am sharing how easy it is to completely refinish small furniture with oven cleaner! You won’t believe the results!

I was perusing the furniture section of our local Salvation Army and saw this antique mirror. It was shoved behind several other pieces of furniture. I hesitated at first because the sticker said $12.99. I’m cheap to the core. Paying over $10 for something like this at a thrift store makes me cringe a little. However, I’m working on redoing an old dresser and I knew this mirror would be perfect. Long story short, I ended up getting the mirror for 50% off that day. Total score!! I brought it home and immediately slathered CitriStrip on it. It took of the paint like a charm. I was left with goopy red varnish that wouldn’t budge. Three attempts later, I was about to paint it and be finished with it. That’s when I saw a little video on Instagram of a lady showing how to refinish small furniture with oven cleaner. I had nothing to lose. I drove myself down to Dollar General and grabbed a can. You won’t believe the results!

What I used:

Oven Cleaner
Scrub Brush
Stainless Steel Scourers
Water

What I did:

Since I had previously used CitriStrip on it, I was sure the piece had been wiped down thoroughly. Once it was clean, I propped it up outside in a nice sunny spot. (I don’t know if the sun helps or not, but it was a beautiful day and I took advantage of it!) Then I gave the whole mirror a good coat of oven cleaner (I’ve heard brands don’t matter, they all work the same!). I let it sit for just a few minutes, and scrubbed it down with the scrub brush. After a good scrubbing, I wiped it down with water and paper towels.

It was pretty goopy and gunky. A pressure washer would’ve come in handy for the clean up. I didn’t have one, so I gave it a vigorous scrubbing with warm water.

After the first coat of cleaner was washed off, I gave it another generous coat of oven cleaner all over the whole mirror. Instead of using the scrub brush this time I used the metal scourers. I will caution you that the metal scourers were a little harsh on the wood. They worked like a charm on the stubborn spots, though!

I let the mirror sit outside in the sunshine to dry. The difference was amazing! I did decided to put a third coat on a couple of very stubborn spots.

Once it was dry, I went over the whole piece with a very fine grit sand paper to polish it up a bit.