Take decades of paint off your doors and window frames to see the beauty underneath

Stripping Paint to Reveal Distinctive Quality of Metal Doors and Window Frames. Metal doors, windows, and frames from yesteryear have all too often been painted over and over and over. As time marches on, the paint coats actually diminish the appearance of what was once fine metal craftsmanship. It’s a laborious task to remove paint layers, especially when they number in the dozens – that’s plural dozens, like somewhere between two and 50 coats of paint. Leave it to Paintworks & Decorating to take on such a monumental task stripping old metal doors and door frames and restoring their former glory.

 Metal-smithing is an ancient skill and art form beginning with crude implements and advancing across centuries to ornate architectural pieces, jewelry, coins, locks and more. Painting over metal was often done for convenience or to match or contrast with a specific decor color. Our client wanted to restore the metalwork for its beauty and authenticity. Metal doors can add real charm to your home as a headboard, art piece or function as a real door. The Big Reuse in Brooklyn is a non-profit store for salvaged and surplus building materials, and you can find interesting old metal pieces at Olde Good Things, Met Metals, Old Iron Architectural Salvage and Demolition Depot and Irreplaceable Artifacts.

When something in metal catches your eye, remember that Paintworks can restore it, paint it, re-paint it, strip it, oil it and refresh it for a conversation piece that you'll cherish for a long time.

Completely stripped door frame. Removed about 9 layers of paint then clear coated for protection.

Door and frame in the middle of the stripping process

Finished Master bedroom

Other side of Master bedroom with bold colored doors

The prep stage - Level 4 plastering on walls and ceilings

Jackson Heights Skim Coating and Interior Painting

Jackson Heights is home to many historic residential buildings that are wonderfully built and preserved details. Unfortunately as time goes on and apartments constantly change hands these once fine and beautiful details become lost. Plaster starts to fail, the walls become warped and wonky. Door frames covered in 10+ coats of paint hide the once detailed frame. Good news is that all of this can be fixed. This new homeowner wanted the apartment returned to its original glory and we were happy to help. As professional plasterers and door frame strippers in Queens we immediately knew how to remedy the situation after walking the space. With our Jackson Heights skim coating team in place we began the 4 day process of giving all walls and ceilings of the apartment a Level 4 treatment. Level 4 is 3-4 layers of compound applied to the surfaces to give a smooth look and feel, replacing any current texture. The bottom picture shows a bedroom during the 2nd day of plastering. While the plaster was drying we began the process of stripping all the door frames. Removing years of paint from door frames is an intensive process that takes expertise and patience. Once the paint was removed from the door frames we re-plastered around the frames to make everything look new again. With the plaster dried we sanded all walls and ceilings with fine sandpaper to ensure proper smoothness. We then primed all surfaces to ready them for the finish coats. Using 2 coats of Benjamin Moore Aura we painted the entire apartment. We loved the accent walls and door colors the client chose. Painting the furnace cover a different color from the wall is unique and worked out well. Painting historic Queens Co-ops can be a challenge but it is always worth it. We are thankful for this very involved project and the way the finished place looks.