I like the look of the old-school, rustic decor. The type of stuff you see in a Cracker Barrel restaurant. I had a corner of my living room that needed some type of old-school decoration that would go with my duck mounts. A friend of mine had an old cast iron stove sitting in his garage. It was in unusually nice condition and wouldn’t take much work to restore it. However, it had a pretty significant crack on one of its corners, so it couldn’t be used for an actual fire anymore. So I thought it would look nice as a decorative piece in my living room once restored.
This is how I did it.
Disclosure: Adam’s Garden of Eatin’ participates in affiliate marketing programs. There are some affiliate links below and I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post, but these are all products I highly recommend. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used.
Step 1
Vacuum off any loose paint, spider webs, dirt, etc…
Step 2
Take your air compressor and blow off any remaining loose debris, you may have missed with the vacuum.
Step 3
Attach your wire brush head to your power drill. Run the wire brush all over the stove’s components. Inside, outside, top, bottom, legs, door, etc… Be extremely thorough on those extremely rusty spots. Vacuum up the dust. The more thorough you are in the cleaning stages, the better the end result will be.
Take your time.
Step 4
Run your welding brush along all the cracks and crevices the power brush might have missed. Get those hidden rust spots the power brush couldn’t reach.
Vacuum up the dust.
Step 5
Go back over with the power brush again and vacuum off the dust. Just in case.
Whatever you miss here, could show up in the final painting.
Step 6
Choose your spray paint color. I went with a hammered black spray paint from Rust-oleum for two reasons. One, Rust-oleum is good at covering rusty metal.
Two, the hammered black matched almost perfectly with the original finish.
Step 7
Paint everything in a well-ventilated area. Hold the spray can 6-8” away from the surface while painting, to avoid getting the paint drip lines. Let dry for 24 hrs. Repeat with a 2nd coat. I didn’t need more than two coats, but if your stove is very rusty, it may take more. You be the judge. Wear gloves, goggles, and a mask for your safety. (The goggles were becoming too foggy, so I scratched them. My decision.)
Step 8
Assemble all components in their new space. Enjoy the new decor. I was originally going to build a platform to set the stove on, but I thought it looked good sitting on my hardwood floor.
Leave A Comment