acetone will take off paint, and probably the gold as well...i'd probably try washing it first with a rag or scrubber for the flaking areas and avoiding the gold... if the chair is going to be used by a child, and the paint is very old i'd have it tested for lead...you sure don't want a child in situation!

wryorwhite -- Don't be scared by all this talk of yellowing. It's exaggerated. Bear in mind that oil-based paint was essentially all that was used in American homes through the 1980s -- so unless you're a teenager, you were around when any house you'd walk into (including the one in which you grew up) had its walls painted with oil-based paint. Trust yourself and your own experience...do you ever remember walking into a house and thinking to yourself "My, these walls are awfully yellowed!"? I sure don't. When's the last time you've heard someone say "Oh, look at those walls! They've gone from looking like snow to looking like Big Bird! This is certainly oil-based paint!"? Never. Yes, oil-based paint yellows very slighly with time. So do all oil-based products, including the clear polyurethane with which wood floors are most often finished. This "yellowing" effect is minimal, and it's not something that jumps out at you or is offensive or anything like that. You have to actively look for it, and the only people who do that are (a) homosexuals, and (b) people who work in the marketing departments of latex-based paint companies. The drawbacks of latex-based paint have largely been resolved in the past few years. The latex-based paints of 2008 are a far cry from the ones of 20 years ago. This is especially true with the high-quality brands like Pratt & Lambert. Modern high-end latex pains bond to drywall well, hold up to moisture and cleaning well, etc. However - latex-based paints aren't as good as oil-based paints when it comes to moisture and dirt resistance, standing up to scrubbing, and bonding to wood. They never can be, because oil (unlike latex) naturally resists water, and naturally soaks into wood (rather than just sitting on top like a skin). Think of what happens when you mix oil and water -- they don't mix; instead, they just separate and keep apart. So moisture and dirt don't bond to the oil-based paint, so it's very easy to clean without damage. In addition, oil-based paint soaks into wood -- unlike latex-based paint, which forms into a skin that you can peel off. This is one of the big drawbacks of using latex paint on high-traffic wood items (like kitchen cabinets). My house has latex-based paint on the walls and ceilings, and oil-based paint on all the wood trim (including the doors and windows and cabinets) -- this is a time-tested and popular arrangement, and it has held up very well for me and my neighbors. Speaking of polyurethane -- there are two types, oil-based and water-based (latex-based) - same as paint. ALL of the manufacturers -- Minwax, Cabot, etc. -- recommend strongly in favor of using the oil-based polyurethane on floors. It's tougher, it holds up better to traffic and moisture, and this "yellowing" effect that the self-proclaimed experts yammer on about are so minimal as to be non-existent. The same is true with the oil-based vs. water-based (latex-based) paints. Again, trust yourself and your own experiences -- how many times have you walked into a home and thought to yourself that the painted walls and ceilings, or the wood floors, were yellowed?

Any chemical that will remove the flaking paint will also remove the non-flaking paint. If you just want to knock off the loose flakes, you'll have to do so mechanically. If the flakes are very loose then you might just scrub the chair down with a scotchbrite pad or something similar. But, really, if the flaking is extensive and the chair is old, it's time to kiss the gold details goodbye and completely strip the whole chair. That old paint may contain lead, which, in a high chair, is just a nightmare waiting to happen.

Good point. This is water based. I did not select their oil version. It is BEHR Alkyd Semi-Gloss Enamel - deep brown (Nomad). Been getting very favorable reviews. I have used other paints for cabinets, but thought I would try this combination. Using Zinsser 1-2-3- GRAY primer because of the dark top coat. Tested the factory gray 1-2-3 last week on a sample cabinet with a dark top coat. Was even more impressed than with the white version which I also really like. Now I have to test the Behr when it comes in before I go into full blown production with my 5 bathrooms. Thanks for having me clarify.