Q. I found a very nice old drop front desk at a sale recently. It appears to be in very good condition except that it is painted a hideous yellow and the texture of the paint is very rough. I have refinished a number of pieces of furniture over the years so I am no rookie but this one has me stumped. I can't seem to get this paint to budge. I have tried every kind of stripper I own. I have even tried sanding it with an electric sander with no real results. I am thinking about using a belt sander on it. Do you have any idea what this finish is and how I might remove it? Thanks. Mike R.

A. Mike, I think maybe you have stumbled across one of the finishing industry's most notorious experiments. It was generically called a "perma-finish" and was the result of so-called "space age technology" in the late 1950's and early 1960's. (It did not have anything to do with the modern metal and stone finish by the same name or the large powder coating company in Arizona that also has that name.)

The finish of the 1950's was essentially a very durable, stable plastic coating that was sprayed on a piece of furniture. It is extremely resistant to almost any chemical as you have found out and sanding it is a waste of time. This irreversibility by itself is enough to drive collectors and restoration people crazy but there was something else even worse. The fad of the period was to remove the old finish by SANDBLASTING!!! if you can believe that. This produced the rough texture you see and feel on this drop front. On harder woods like maple and cherry the process just roughened up the wood's surface but on softer wood like pine or open grain wood like oak the blasting process produced deep gouges along the grain pattern, giving the look and texture of a very old, worn, weathered piece of wood.

Even if you could remove the perma-finish you still have to deal with the damage done to the wood itself. To make a long story short either just enjoy the piece as it is for what it is - an experimental aberration or paint it another color with an acrylic paint. 

Q. Hello Fred - You seem to have plenty of knowledge about Northern Furniture Co. so I would like to ask you about a stool my Dad found for me.  It has a tag on the bottom that says "Northern Furniture Co." and it also says "Wisconsin". It has the color of enamel they used on it. I think it says 3552. I think the original color was some sort of brown but it has been painted several more times. It currently is white and it also has a flower painting on the side that wasn't painted over.

The top is padded and covered with a winter scene with children ice skating on the fabric. It is ripped and stained and the padding is ruined. How can I find out what it originally looked like. Colleen

A. Good information is amazingly hard to find on Northern Furniture. It was founded in Sheboygan, Wisconsin in the late 19th century and was renamed "R-Way Furniture around 1949.

I think your stool is actually a vanity bench, the last surviving member of an entire bedroom suite from the late 1920's to late 1930's. Most middle grade suites from that period included a mirrored vanity and a bench. The spool turning on the legs was very popular then as were hand painted panels on furniture, particularly floral motifs. The matching vanity to your bench almost certainly had the same painting on the drawer fronts or on the center panel and the bed and chest probably did also.

The upholstery you describe is surely not original to the piece. The original fabric would have been a damask or tapestry. The original seat most likely was a plywood panel, padded with cotton and screwed to the corner blocks of the bench from underneath. If the plywood is in reasonable condition use it again but be sure to discard the cotton batting and use dacron poly as the new padding. The old cotton has retained some of every odor it ever had and it only gets worse.

Since the original finish appears to have been paint, there is certainly no harm in repainting the piece, even stripping it if the build up of old paint is a problem. If you plan to repaint, you don't have to strip the piece entirely clean, just enough to make it smooth and provide a sound base for new paint

Send your comments, questions and pictures to me at PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423 or fmtaylor@aol.com