Lisa H. emailed asking for some advice on how to clean an oil painting she recently found at a thrift store.
Above is an example of a filthy painting I just pulled out of my garage. Since I buy so many paintings at thrift stores, I use a little trick that gets years of grime off easily and quickly. The secret?
Bread! Doughy white bread to be exact.
Well, we didn’t have any white bread laying around except for this old bagel, which if you hate carbs would count as evil evil bread. What you need is the interior surface of the bread exposed. Either get a precut loaf of bread or cut something in half. Just get to the squishy white part.
Rub the soft side all over the painting. Don’t push hard, just gently run the bread all over the surface. The bread will pick up all the grime and grossness like a sponge.
Once your bread is filthy, toast it up and slap some jam on it. Or throw it away. That’s your call.
Use an extra clean piece of bread to do the final gentle rub down and your grime should be gone.
The grime may be gone but there will be residual bread crumbs all over the place. I use a clean soft bristle paint brush to wipe them all off and get rid of any remaining gunk.
That’s it, you’re done. Feel free to hang it anywhere your little heart desires.
Bam!
BEFORE & AFTER
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57 Comments
I can’t believe that somebody gave this painting away. That pout! That page boy! She’s marvelous. Imagine her at 14.
Wow! Amazing trick, amazing painting and who knew that there was more to bagels than cream cheese and salmon.
You think it will work on watercolor? I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try. I’ll let you know.
now that’s handy to know. fab.
i still think she looks like you!
Yes! My cousin is a professional restorer of antiques for museums and dealers, and he always uses Wonder bread to clean paintings.
Genius. My only question is: how did you discover this works?
Wow that’s amazing! I would have never in a million years guess that white bread could do this. I’ll ask the same questions as Ashely— how did you discover this, and is there any other handy things that you can use bread to do? (besides eating it of course)
so clever
Is there any problem bread can’t fix?
Great advice!
Sheer awesomeness!!! Love it. Worked great for me only I wish my painting were that cool.
I don’t like paintings with faces… when the lights are shut at night, for some reason you can’t see anything else on the painting but their eyes. I make sure to avoid it and not make eye contact, especially when I’m at my grandmother’s house. Hey! I think I just figured out how to avoid midnight fridge raids.
you are so handy. win!
I would never in a million years have guessed…
There’s an art restorer here in town that recommends saliva, but I say, how much would you need to clean a whole painting? You’d have to store drool for days…
I find lots of fun treasures in my thrift stores, but never had I had any such luck with paintings and it’s what I’m always searching for. I’m storing this tip in my bag o’ tricks in the event I ever find one! Love the site. Thanks for the constant flowing inspiration.
I forgot where I learned this trick. I’ve been doing it for YEARS. Maybe art school…
It works great though.
Looks real good! Hopefully it will work just the same with gluten/corn/soy free bread. Thanks for the tip!
this is brilliant! i don’t remember learning this at otis… what the…
dang girl! you are GOOD! now i just need to score a good thrift store painting… i think you’re taking all the good ones;)
I count on you for these regular examples of things equally gross AND cool.
Looks amazing! Great tip!
Thanks so much for this; what a great tip.
you are always amazing!
Good tip and, cool commentary. Makes me want to go out and eat a frickin scum covered bagel right now.
wow. you. are. teh. MAN.
Hhmmm–white bread. whodathunkit! will try it. If you”re amenable to giving out another household secret– for instance the wood coffee table and gray Eames chair that needed “a good oiling”. what product do you use. I have used Watco danish oil on woods, but plastic chairs?? I have 6 of those chairs which are kept on outside patio–can you help me?
Nice bangs!
Great tip. I have lots of miscellaneous paintings that need a little cleaning.
P.S. The kid in the painting looks a lot like my sister when she was young. It’s kind of freaking me out.
i’m not gonna lie…that shit right there is maybe the most awesome tip i have ever had.
great idea! thanks for this!
Wow! I had no idea something so simple as bread could clean a painting! Your tips and ideas are just the best! I bought a huge painting at a thrift store…very midcentury modern….but the idiots pricing the painting put the price sticker right on the actual painting!!!! Not the back!!! UGH!!! So you can guess what happened when I removed it….very gently also….a piece of the paint came right off!!! DRAT!!! I have it above my fireplace but have a candle sitting in front of that blemish. I thought I’d ask our local high school art department, if some talented student could just shade it in or something. That price sticker thing at thrift stores happens alot! BLEH!
I work in museums and this trick is not recommended at all. If you have something of value, never try this. Rubbing food on art is never a good idea.
Duh.
We are talking about thrift store paintings…obviously you aren’t going to clean your Warhol with bread.
Where do find all these great portraits? love your blog!
love the trick and adore that painting! You have a nice growing collection of portraits!
Bagels – so many flavors, so many functions!
I have these painting of flowers that my husband’s great grandmother painted on boards. I love them, they are dark with age/cigar smoke etc… I read, jumped up grabbed some bread rubbed, it crumbled(Jamaican hard dough), I brushed and wow instant gratification. This was a great idea thank you so much for sharing the wisdom!
i am a painter and i didn’t know this. guess i haven’t had any long enough to get them dirty. great advice.
So interesting…
Will be trying it out tonight…
Thank you!
xo
Wow..what a difference bread can make..interesting!
A friend has asked me to re-frame an old family watercolour. the painting (on board) is marked and dirty. Would the bread method work on a watercolour?
Thank you.
I’ll bet a donut would work….
Don’t do this to watercolors. Don’t do this to paintings you care about. You can get the same effect with a product called Absorene sponge, that is a dry rubber sponge sometimes sold as a cleaner for wall scuffs or to remove dog hair from furniture.
Great tip and so thrifty too! Thanks!
Great post on cleaning paintings!! Downside is that painting looks exactly like Amy bishop, the woman who killed three professors at the university of Alabama in Huntsville two or so years ago! It’s literally freaky. Especially given that today is the day she was sentenced. Google Amy bishop uah and see for yourself!
first world problem -> first world solution…
nifty nonetheless
That is so great ! we have no bagels where I live so I tried it with white pita bread. I guess I will have to wait until I am in the US again and try again with a bagel
We won’t discuss what my husband thought/said when he saw me vigorously rubbing half a pita on an antique oil painting 
hurry to the Antiques Roadshow, you’ve got a real treasure ((-;
this is awsome i have a painting that my mom done some 19yrs ago an was afraid to clean in an it really needs to be thank you so much
Italian renaissance artists used bread as a standard eraser for drawing and cleaning art. I have heard also of a potato tradition, rubbed lightly over the surface to clean oil paintings, but only sturdy, not flaking off or delicate ones. Be careful, you can also ruin a painting quite easily, and I would be wary of those sponges. Experiment on a small corner first!
A little sunlight on the painting surface was the way old masters got their colors to be bright and fresh again. It apparently loosens the molecules so they are more mobile and can reflect light. Good for getting rid of mildew too. But again, be watchful. As an artist I have used all these methods and they work, but I knew what the works were made of. (Lightfast, on linen, etc)
Thank you so much for this! I am amazed at what people get rid of, precious paintings of people, other paintings with sentimental notes written on the back. I look for paintings every time I go junkin’ and I do have a slew of them! Nice to know now how to clean them, I knew there had to be a way!
This seems crazy but I am going to have to try it.
Je ne pense pas que ce soit une bonne idée de nettoyer un tableau soit même. Il vaut mieux laisser faire un spécialiste comme un restaurateur de tableau. Chaque tableau est différent et il n’y a pas de recette miracle. Ce n’est pas un exemple à prendre, des tableaux peuvent êtres détruis ainsi..
I think that it is not a good idea. Fragile painting must not be so cleaned. Scales of the painting can scratch and leave. It is not a miracle solution for all the paintings. The breadcrumbs can be source of mold.let do specialist
Those are two great tips (bread to clean painting + paint brush to clean bread crumbs)..
LOL @ “Once your bread is filthy, toast it up and slap some jam on it. Or throw it away. That’s your call.” =))
Tried this with an oil painting from my grandparents, who used to smoke inside and have many beautiful, but darkened paintings. Anyway, it didn’t work.
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