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How to remove cigarette smoke from second hand bookshelves?

I have a perfect set of shelves at a local op shop for creating a library in my home. The only thing is there is a cigarette smell. They are orange at the moment. I want to refinish these and use a paint wash and matte polyurethane. Will stripping the varnish with a chemical stripper and sanding, then using matte polyurethane get rid of the smell? Should I keep waiting for other shelves?

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MitchellMc

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @sharee. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about restoring shelves.

There's a good chance the cigarette smell hasn’t penetrated the timber itself but is lingering in the existing finish. Stripping the varnish with a chemical stripper and sanding back to bare timber should effectively remove most, if not all, of the odour. Sealing the timber with polyurethane after refinishing should help trap any residual smells, ensuring they don’t linger. So, if the price is right, it’s definitely worth giving it a go rather than waiting for another set of shelves to come along. Perhaps you could score an additional reduction in price if you mentioned the issue.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

Jewelleryrescue

Hi @sharee

Try wiping down the shelves with vanilla essence on damp cloth, especially timber cracks/joins. This is also great for really stinky fridges that have had meat and stuff defrost and decompose in and smells beyond bad. Once we were on holidays and on return the freezer was broken down, I am glad of being a kid back then I went AWL while the mess was fixed by my parents. The vanilla scent worked but also back then they used real vanilla beans extract not the artificial stuff.

As a backup white vinegar if you don't mind your home will smell like a fish and chip shop for a couple of days be the smoke stink should reduce somewhat as you don't want smoke residue smell on your hands and clothes. Vinigar is a powerfull cleaner in its own rights. Try mixing it with a bit of bicarb of soda on your sponge you will get foaming cleaning power plus.

A commercial odour neutraliser is available I haven't used or tried it to say it it works well or not.

Than after your do your renovation of the shelves as @MitchellMc has done a good job of describing your shelves will smell like new ones.:)

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