How to strip the color from a rocking chair  

I would use paint stripper. Paint tends to gum up sandpaper pretty quickly, so you'll probably end up spending a good chunk of your time changing the paper, plus you have to be very careful that you don't end up with sanding marks in the wood. Then again, stripper is messier and more toxic (buy a respirator if you don't have one--3M makes some inexpensive half-face ones that are comfortable and very effective). I've had the best results with heavy-duty paste type methylene chloride stripper. Get heavy duty chemical resistant gloves, too--about $12/pr or more. And safety goggles.

Doesn

Leif, do you mean the color of the entire bottom of the seat?

https://www.designaddict.com/cdn/farfuture/ZMsUBV_jIkI7Kdl4_k3P3cK5bkSAj1...

I thought that was just the natural beech, but it does have a bit of a white wash to it. I don't see anything around the legs that looks like white-green-white.

Spanky, thank you for the advice, that sounds like a good plan to remove the color.

Leaf, the green color seem to me as original, though not easy to recognize under the white color. I will double check. Also I imagine I saw other Wikkelso chairs in that green color.

I just did a quick google image search and didn't see any green rockers, but I know I've seen Scandinavian windsor-style chairs with original dark bluish-green paint. This rocker shows up white white, red, and black paint, plus clear finish. I looked at 1st Dibs listings because they usually have a lot of detail photos but only one had a photo of the underside, and fortunately (?) it looks a lot like yours!

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/seating/armchairs/illum-wikkelso-white...

I wonder if the lighting on yours is giving it more of a warmish caste than it actually has. Hard to tell.

The other thing that gave me pause about the green being original is the way it is slopped onto the underside of the seat. I know Paulsson chairs are painted or lacquered before assembly and even the paint on the seat itself stops cleanly at the bottom edge of the sides. I don't know if Wikkelso rockers were done this way--might be worth doing a search for more photos.

I seriously, seriously doubt that the green is original. It would have been sprayed, and that is brushed. And yes, the whitewash is paint. Probably a fast spraying because the bottom did not need a full coat.

Do yourself a favor and pay somebody else to do it. I would probably be inclined to turn that job down.

But if I took it, I might disassemble the chair and soak each piece in a bucket of lacquer thinner for a day. Then clean it up best as I could, put it back together, and put a new coat of white lacquer on.

I'd just slap on a new coat of paint in my favorite color(s) and get rockin'.

I need to strip off the old color somehow. The old paint hangs there in pieces.

I think if paint stripper doesn't work, I can carefully sand it and indeed spray with a new paint.

What probably would be more realistic. I doubt to get it so clean, that I just need to oil it.

Paint stripper will get the paint off if you do it correctly. If the original white lacquer or paint leaves pigment in the wood that won't come out with stripper, then finish it with sanding.

Unless you really love to sand for hours and hours, then knock yourself off and just sand all the paint off.

Seriously, just find a chemical stripper in your area. It would probably cost you $100 or less. Sanding is just going to make things worse.

Have I ever mentioned how hard it is to get paint out of the corners? And there are a lot of little corners here.

If you are serious about stripping this and oiling it you really need to be serious about disassembling it, then stripping it, the lightly, lightly hand sanding it, then oiling it.

Even if you take it to a place with a stripper dunk tank, the paint will stay caught in the corners, and you will have to disassemble it to get the residue out.

When I have done stuff like this, I always disassemble after initial stripping, then do further cleanup. But I have a flowover system, which helps in loosening the joints. Absent that, a heat gun or steamer... messy job, anyway.

Now I am confused what to do with the chair. 🙂 I cannot leave it like that and stripping the paint including disassembling is probably too difficult. I will try it on another chair, which is not so valuable and look how far I come. Then decide what to do with that one.