11
Showerthought: I read that a huge amount of wood in old furniture is actually poplar, not oak or maple.
I was looking through a book on antique furniture from the library and it said a lot of pieces people call 'painted pine' are actually poplar under the paint. Found a photo of a 1920s dresser I'm fixing up, and sure enough, the frame is poplar. Always thought it was a cheaper, modern wood... but it's been used for ages. Anyone else run into this and have tips for working with it when it's painted over?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
jennyh551mo ago
A buddy of mine actually bought a painted antique dresser at a garage sale for twenty bucks. He thought it was just a beat-up pine piece until he started sanding the top and found that weird greenish-gray wood underneath. @hugo_hayes I get what you're saying about looks, but my friend felt like he had to tell the buyer when he flipped it because it changed the value a bit. The poplar was actually really soft and prone to dents under the old paint, so he had to be careful not to sand through the old finish into the wood itself. He ended up using a gel stripper instead of heavy sanding, and it came out smooth as glass. He told me that once you know what's under there, you can pick paint colors that work with the wood's natural undertones instead of fighting them.
6
kim_martin2mo ago
Poplar is a classic secondary wood. It's been used for drawer sides and case backs in fancy pieces for centuries. The paint hides the green and gray streaks in the wood, which can look a bit plain unfinished. It's actually really stable, so those old frames don't warp much. Just sand it smooth and it takes new paint beautifully.
4