You could try painting it a metal finish. I did this to an Ikea medicine cabinet that had the same powder coated finish as the locker cabinet. The metal paint kit I used was a pewter finish but it looks more like raw metal. You can find the same paint kit at Home Depot or a craft store.

It's cheap Ikea, is it going to even LOOK good if you strip it? Why not just get a grey one? Or as kdel suggested, paint it with a metal finish.

Laura
http://www.grafxnerd.net

My dad works with metal a lot and he always talks about acid-etching a metal surface to prepare it for paint. I know you want to strip the paint off the metal, but perhaps acid-etching would work to strip it too.

It does seem like a lot of work.

Someone who does auto body work would probably know. You could go to a shop and just ask them.

Powder coating can be very difficult to remove. Often they are burnt off or sandblasted. solventkleene.com/pcstrip.htm has a couple of chemical strippers that work and are supposedly "green" products. They are however intended for full immersion. Perhaps you could try a test patch in an inconspicuous area and see if it works out.

this just seems like a waste of your time and money. If you can't do it yourself it will be very expensive to have someone do it for you, unless you have a connection for it.

I have a large metal bookcase that i got from a school that was powder coated grey. I wanted raw look so i dd it with an angle grinder and a sanding pad. Long story short. It took a long time, didn't look that good in the end, was very hard to do.

The metal on that was a lot thicker too, with the ikea one you would probably melt right through it.

Seems to me the whole point of having the bright red locker is that it's bright red (?) Why not just sell it on craigslist and get what you really want? My guess would be that stripping the powder coat would leave you with a mess. And even if it didn't, (if it were me) I wouldn't want to put all that work into a $99 cabinet that's cute, but basically a clever piece of junk. (I have one too, I love it, but know it's junk.)
Cheers,
JoanneM

I used to use "Aircraft Remover" to strip paint and powder coat off of bicycle frames before repainting them, the stuff is cheap and can be found at most auto part stores. be warned the stuff is smells like straight chlorine and will eat through the paint in a few minutes so you want to make sure you have a good work area for it.

photo for ref http://i2.tinypic.com/smvomr.jpg
and a youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_DE96qt5CI

New plan. Sell current red one on Craigslist for $50. Then go to Ikea, spend $100 on the same cabinet in 'silver finish'. Consider the $50 the cost of avoiding a brutal job with likely-to-be-disappointing results. :)

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40100192

You can take it to a body shop and beadblast it. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be too expensive. If you do decide to strip it, you MUST seal it. It will rust with no finish.

Waste of time.

There are lots of places around such as flea markets and vintage shops where you can find vintage metal steel cabinets from old school locker rooms and medical facilities with far more character than this.

My understanding is that paint stripping is best left to professionals. The chemicals used to strip paint are extremely toxic; you don't want them anywhere near your skin nor do you want to be breathing in the fumes.

nope. bork bork is right.

The whole point of industrial items in the home is that they have a found-object quality. Laboriously refinishing a store-bought item to look like you found it on the street seems a bit silly.

Agree with bepsf. Have a look on : http://www.govdeals.com

Hello all. This was my question. Thanks for your input.

Had a feeling that it would be too difficult to strip the paint but thought I would ask. I think repainting is my only option. I have one old and one new and well it looks like Ikea changed the color red they use.

Guess a can of spray paint and I have a date on some upcoming weekend. I might paint it bright blue or something else fun. I miss the days when Ikea PS came in a plethora of colors.

I remember having read and seen on a french blog that somebody stripped this same piece of furniture, unfortunately I do not remember what was used to strip the paint.

"I have one old and one new and well it looks like Ikea changed the color red they use."

I bet that's not the issue.

More likely it just faded - It happens to cheap painted finishes, particularly to reds.

Okay whatever you are doing...STOP

I did this SAME thing last week. My husband and I bought the tall narrow PS cabinet in white and we really wanted it to be lime green to go on our bathroom.

2 cans of primer, 6 cans of lime green spray paint and 3 cans of glossy coat later (each can=$5)......

It just didn't look great. The paint was not smooth, that may have been because we did it outside, it will just never look as good as theirs.

So we sold it at a yard sale last weekend for $20. Talk about a waste of money!! Its okay, we made a deal with our new apt. to only put things in it that we love and are perfect, and this just wasn't.

We did call an autobody shop and they said it would have been about $200 to paint it.

Ugh