Here's a view of the linen closet doors.

Are you sure there was paint on the baseboards? The doors have never been painted - that's not a faux finish.

First of all, you should take the baseboards off the walls, not strip and finish them in place. Is that new wall-to-wall carpet? Seems strange there aren't HW floors with all the old woodwork. And you're going to have to strip or touch up the bottom of that door trim now since you got stripper on it.

Once you've got all the baseboard (and any other trim you want to refinish) off, clean it with some mineral spirits to get any grease/dirt/wax off. Then test a small area with a Q tip dipped in denatured alcohol - if it softens the finish, you've got shellac, and all you need to do it wipe it down with alcohol. Then you can put new shellac on top (amber would be nice for the color, to try to match your doors). Problem with shellac is that it doesn't like water, so if there's any chance the finish could get wet, best to use a dewaxed shellac like Zinsser Sealcoat (I don't know if that comes in amber though, you might need to get it tinted) over top, and then put something more water-resistant as the final coat.

I'm guessing that you're not going for period-appropriate or restoration, so you could use polyurethane on top of the dewaxed (very important!) shellac.

If the alcohol doesn't take the finish off then you've got varnish. So you're going to have to use a chemical stripper to get it all off if you don't want to restore it, you MUST do this in a well-ventilated area, with drop cloths.

Once you've got the finish off, you should rinse the wood with mineral spirits (dries very quickly) to get the residue off, then sand as needed to get scuffs and scratches out. Dings can possibly be steamed out, or filled, but the filler never really takes stain as well as the wood. Wipe the wood down again with a rag dipped in mineral spirits to get the sawdust off. Let dry and then you can stain and finish with your choice of product.

Thank you for your response!

I suppose I do need to remove the trim... Although we have a radius wall and those few feet I cannot remove without damaging it.

This is old carpet & new carpet is coming (in fact, it's what spurred this). I don't know what the floor is like underneath yet but yes, we have nice hardwood floors downstairs.

Sorry, I don't want to restore this finish. It's not original to the house. I believe this was done about 50 yrs ago to lighten the original dark finish. Something (lead based paint?) was painted over it and then this lighter finish was applied. I'm not getting that paint layer off with reasonable effort.

So now that I've started stripping and I'm not down to see the grain of the wood, I'm considering painting.

OK, if you're sure that's paint (I wasn't sure if 3 strippers had just bleached the wood), then you need to research how to safely strip the paint. I would have thought that the previous 3 rounds of stripping would have taken it off, but if it didn't then you should really remove the baseboards (sorry about the radius) and work in an area with dropcloths, protective clothing, and using proper procedures and stripper for lead paint. Maybe take it to pro? Will be $$$ but you really don't want lead paint chips or lead-laden sludge on your property. Worst case (may be less $$) would be to replace the trim with new and discard (appropriately) the old.

I've stripped paint out of the pores of unprimed wood before by coating with shellac and then stripping the shellac - the paint comes up right with it.

Sometimes it's better to just leave intact lead paint alone and paint over it instead of trying to strip it.

Good luck (and I hope you find beautiful HWs under that old carpet - the lighter carpet in front of the doors looks brand new)!

This post was edited by ajsmama on Thu, Mar 20, 14 at 16:10

Yes, I was hoping it was bleached wood too! My husband pointed out otherwise...

I'm thinking the safest, cheapest, fastest route...is to paint. Any suggestions? We have white trim going up the stairs already and it looks nice. But it seems like a lot of white with the trim plus all the doors. We have 3 bedroom doors, a bathroom door, attic door and the 2 linen closet doors.

Also, do I need to continue stripping? I'm thinking I can just prime & paint.

Clean with mineral spirits, scuff sand, and put a coat of Sealcoat on, then paint with enamel or oil-based paint (if your state allows sale of it any more, it's tougher than latex). Dewaxed shellac is a wonderful thing - it sticks to anything and anything sticks to it. Most (all?) stain-blocking primers have shellac in them. AFAIK, states haven't restricted sales of Sealcoat, though I think they have the shellac-based Bullseye (long list of states Home Depot can't ship to when I checked) - more b/c of the white titanium dioxide pigment than the shellac. Shellac is food-safe - they coat pills and candy with it!

Oh, and I don't work for Zinsser - but you can tell I love the stuff!

Do you need to paint the doors? Looks like linen closet doors might just need cleaning and refinish?

This post was edited by ajsmama on Thu, Mar 20, 14 at 20:57

It's worth driving to a state where you can buy oil paint if yours doesn't allow it. Much tougher finish and easier to work with to boot.

I've never seen a finish that wouldn't come off with something. Try denatured alcohol, acetone, lacquer thinner, and (ultimately) methylene chloride. All with proper ventilation and PPE of course. Some of the newer strippers (eg 3M Safest strip) also work, but if methylene chloride doesn't touch it it's probably seriously inert.

What do you see if you sand an out-of-view spot?

Woodwork and trim doesn't have to be painted white. If you want a darker look, choose a nice brown (or any other color! Dark greens, blues and reds can be great. White is so boring).

If you really think it's lead paint, I just saw this link on the oldhouse forum of GW

http://www2.epa.gov/lead/renovation-repair-and-painting-program-do-it-yourselfers

MC is really nasty stuff - that's the chemical stripper I was referring to in my first post. I don't know if Safest (Safer?) or Citristrip would work on lead paint. Like I said, if it's intact, I'd just shellac and paint over it.

Might want to post over on oldhouse

Here is a link that might be useful: Old House forum