I just basically cleaned it up. Mineral spirits on some of the pieces and when that didn't do anything, I used something that my BIL gave me. It is very similar to what Lindac uses-- I think a combo of shellac thinner and lacquer thinner. It really removes all the built up crud! I then put boiled linseed oil on it. I love the finish it gives. I am more into the primitive look than the "new furniture' look! Everyone that has seen the pieces that are done-- especially over the holidays when our house has been like grand central station-- are just amazed on how wonderful they look. I could have sold several of the pieces ;) Now that things are settling down around here, I have started on the curved front dresser. It is taking a little more work than I originally planned on. There are a couple of broken boards that I started fixing this morning and I am now just waiting for the glue to cure. I am really excited about getting it done so I can put my TV on it! Thanks for your kind words! Keri

Fun, and then she primed it with GARDZ...I hope..:) My painter removed some Sanitas brand wallcovering last week that was up for 35 years. Chomp! made it fall off the wall. I'll try your product recommendation next time. Michael

Safe? Yes, as long as you are not using a regular plain slide-in kind of range. Note the 4" riser/vent at the back of Pirula's range. Any range that has at least a 4" high backsplash on it can go directly against the wall and will be fine from a code and safety standpoint. With your cooktop, it will be a little different. Some makers (such as Blue Star) require 6" of horizontal clearance for their units, but Miele is designed to require less. So, as long as you maintain the requisite 2.75" clearance for the Miele, there will not be a safety issue. Beyond that, I'm very much with akchicago on cleaning the thing. I speak from experience. A couple of decades ago, I had an old-house kitchen with beadboard backsplash. I'm a messy cook. I found it hard to maintain the beadboard without frequent touch-up on the paint. I never found a paint that was tough enough to hold up for any length of time. If you really like the look of the beadboard, I suppose you could consider overlaying it with a clear tempered glass panel. That would allow the beadboard pattern to show through and would be much easier to clean. (I've done something like this behind my stove in my current house, although my wall is just plain painted drywall, The tempered glass panel was inexpensive. The most expensive part was having holes drilled in the glass for the mounting screws.). This post was edited by JWVideo on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 18:02

Get a REAL wallpaper-stripper! * Roll/brush on a couple coats about 20 minutes apart. * Here's the TRICK..... * Get some light (half-mil) painters-plastic. Press it on the wall. * The idea here is to keep the stripper from drying-out, by using the plastic film!! It's the same reason you wrap up Meatloaf in Saran-wrap! * Leave it on for a couple hours....watch a Football or Baseball game :-) * Then, pull some plastic back, & start scraping. Consider getting one of those BBQ Grill scrubbers with the handle & open scrubby-head. This will help you chew-thru the paste. * Now.....rinse, rinse, & rinse again! * Then apply a couple coats of Gardz.! Faron