Is TikTok's Recommended Paint Stripper All That It's Cracked Up To Be?

Whether you've recently purchased an upcycled piece of furniture or botched a paint job yourself, restoring it to its original form can feel like an overwhelming task. That's where TikTok DIY'ers step in. Rather than tarnishing your piece of furniture even further, they recommend using some SOLVABLE, non-toxic paint and varnish stripper, which you can purchase from Home Depot for $74.98. You could use this to strip outdated kitchen cabinets or a wide variety of other furnishings. However, while users on TikTok seem to love the product, others do not. But why?

As it turns out, other home improvement site reviewers feel the product is ineffective. Among the negative reviews, many purchasers of the product felt it made little or no difference to their project, quite the opposite of the online video that recommends it. But while there were negative reviews, others were extremely positive, leading to mixed feelings surrounding this mysterious paint stripper. Below, we'll take a look at the feedback so you can decide whether it's really worth your money.

Despite negative feedback, the product appears to work well for others. For example, one review on the Home Depot site from the user "KAYLEE" stated, "I'm not sure why some people say it doesn't work. For me it worked super well. I bought a small bottle of this and another low VOC brand because I needed to strip a window sill of a 100+ year farmhouse and couldn't do it outside. There was probably over 10 layers of paint through all the decades and this stripper had it bubbling and cracking in 10 mins. I was able to scrape it off like butter," while another added, "I used a few paint remover solutions. I thought I'd use this- a bit expensive; Bought this yesterday, it's amazing results."

There were other similar reviews alongside these and the TikTok recommendation. If you want to try it out for yourself, brush a generous coating onto the furniture in question before allowing it to sit for the amount of time specified in the instructions. After this, go in with your paint scraper — which you can buy off Home Depot for $9.77 if you don't have one already — and dislodge the loose paint. As a result, you should be left with a piece of furniture that looks much like its original form and is ready for re-decorating. You can add it to plaster, concrete, and glass, too, so it's pretty versatile. You could even remove paint off metal surfaces. 

Although TikTok sings this product's praises, many Home Depot buyers don't share the same sentiment. Of the 24 reviews on the website as of writing, 71% gave two stars or below, with the remaining percentage being five-star ratings. So, why all the bad feedback? Well, as it turns out, many buyers of the product aren't satisfied with their end results. For example, one user on the website claims, "As the other reviews say, this product does not work to remove anything. I applied it to a cabinet door that I am refinishing and let it sit for a couple of hours. When I scraped it off, nothing really happened as you can see in my photo." Although this was just one review, plenty of others seemed to chime in with similar notations.

If you're unsure whether you want to try this specific paint stripper, others from the Home Depot website have much higher overall ratings, such as the Max Strip paint and varnish stripper for $16.97. This particular product holds a four-star rating as of writing, much higher than the two stars of the SOLVABLE version. Again, you would use this product in exactly the same way as previously described, per the product's instructions. If you do so correctly, paint removal becomes much easier.