I found these incredible candle pillars at an antique market in Ceglie Messapica. The seller had a few different sets of pillars but these were the largest and oldest of the selection. I have always loved a candle pillar! I see these sitting in my future puglian townhouse. 😉
These pillars are from an old church and they were painted over numerous times. I thought to myself, stripping the paint and taking the pillars back to the old wood would make these striking! The current beige and black did not do them justice. I had to find the easiest way to do that as I did not want to sand the wood. Something this old could be fragile and I really could not tell until I got the paint off.
I started searching for a paint stripper on amazon. I settled on “Camp STRIP GEL Sverniciatore Professionale In Gel Per Legno, Ferro E Muro, Multicolore“. The reviews were a bit metà e metà (half and half). Though I gave the product a chance and it worked absolutely perfect for me. Make sure to wear gloves and I put the product on with a rubber basting brush. (see video for details)
After the application, I let the product sit on the pillars for about 15 minuti. You will know the paint is ready to be removed when you start to see bubbles appear. This is when it is safe to start using the scraper to remove the paint. You do not need to and should not use any force. The paint just falls off the wood.
Once you have removed all the loose paint, you may have to go back and repeat the process one more time for more resistant areas.
Modern paint is chemically different from paint that was used in the early 19th century. The stripgel will work perfect on modern paints. If you notice in the picture to the right, once the beige paint came off, I was left with a black base. This base is the original paint that was used on the pillars. It reacts more like a stain than paint.
Once I removed all the paint the scraper and gel would achieve, I lightly sanded down the pillars to remove all the excess ‘stain’ and to let the wood shine through. [I also decided to scrape the paint off the pillar legs. At first I was going to paint the legs a matt black. Though once I scraped the paint off, I really loved the rustic look of the old steel and just sealed the legs as they were.] It was not until I started sanding that I noticed some issues on the the pillars. over the years it appears wet wood rot and termites had damaged parts of the pillars. I would need to take preventative measures to make sure all the termites were dead and remove all the wet rot. The termites can be taken care of a few ways if you need help with this (read more here.) The wet wood rot can be gently scraped away and sanded down.
Once all the rot is removed and the termites gone I started to rebuild the pillars. You can use any wood putty that best matches the color of the wood. This wood is so old that I chose to go with a natural color hoping that it would blend over time. I choose Syntilor – Pasta di Legno all’ Acqua 50 GR Naturale (Syntilor – Wood Paste with Water 50 GR Natural) I placed the putty in any area I removed wood rot from and saw termite damage.
I let this dry for a couple days as I worked on other projects. Once I got back to the pillars I started sanding everything down again. This was mainly to make the surfaces even and remove the excess putty. A light sanding should be fine unless you put the putty on like I did and made rough spots. ha! Most of the putty was on the top of the pillars where the wood rot was located.
After everything was sanded down and smooth I took a router and removed the excess putty where the candle needle was originally. That is the square section in the center of the top. Once the needle sat flush with the candle pillar top – I was complete. I cleaned the candle pillars with a damp towel to remove the dust and then sealed the pillars with Gubra Cera Solida Mobili Lattina Neutra 500ml. Just simply follow the instructions. It works perfect!
I hope you love the finished product as much as I do! Soon I will make my own pillar candles to sit on the top. =)
This item is currently not for sale.
