Bleaching Wood Furniture

I recently was scouring Facebook Marketplace for a little vintage desk or secretary for our dining room. I typically work from the dining room table and often don’t clean up from day to day, so I was hoping for something that would store (and hide) my work things at the end of the day. When I stumbled upon this little secretary, I thought it would be the perfect project piece for a new technique that I had been wanting to try: bleaching wood furniture!

I had seen a few other DIY’ers take bleach to old furniture pieces and I was very intrigued. My hope was for the bleach to cut the red from my secretary and to have more of a raw pine patina like the piece in this entry by Amber Interiors:

I documented the easy process on Instagram and you can watch the whole process here!

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

220 and 120 grit sandpaper (I used an orbital sander)
Regular household bleach or outdoor bleach
Erosion proof container
Paint brush
Bar Keepers Friend (if restoring hardware)
Toothbrush or scouring pad

First, you will want to sand off any varnish and as much of the stain as you can. I did leave some stain where I wanted some patina & color variation, like on the smaller trim details.

Once I was happy with the sanding, I wiped my secretary down with a damp rag to remove any dust. Then I started brushing on the bleach – not so much that it was dripping, but enough to thoroughly soak the wood.

I then let the secretary dry outside overnight. Once the first coat is dry, you can apply another coat to lighten the wood to your liking (I only did one coat). Before bringing your furniture inside, neutralize the bleach by wiping down with a wet rag or hosing it off outside.

My cabinet had some pretty original brass hardware that needed cleaned up a bit, so I made a paste of Bar Keepers Friend + water to bring back some of the original shine. You can use a small brush, toothbrush or scouring pad to clean up your old hardware.

And that’s it! I am so happy with the end result of this easy furniture makeover. I think this piece looks so much more interesting after the bleach treatment and the patina + shine of the old hardware takes it the extra mile.