How To Fix A Veneer On An Old Table

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There once was a time menstruum, in which article of furniture makers decided to cover their woods piece of furniture with a thinned piece of a DIFFERENT (sometimes less beautiful) slice of wood. Why?

I couldn't tell ya. Virtually probable considering information technology was cheaper to apply a pinewood base and cover it with a tiny flake of another solid wood.

Thankfully, times have inverse, and today I'm going to show you a few awesome techniques for restoring wood veneer furniture!

So the next fourth dimension yous skip by a piece at the austerity store or think about tossing that dresser you've had in the attic for years…DON'T DO Information technology!!!

There are so many things you tin can practice with a piece covered in woods veneer

i – Repair the forest veneer. If most of it is in skillful shape, sand the chips down, make full cracks, iron out bubbling, and pigment it!

two – Alter your piece effectually! Drawers? Take them out! Peak? Replace with tile or stone? We'll get more into that in a few.

iii – Remove the veneer – I know, I know. This is not fun at all, just I have establish a fashion to remove wood veneer that actually isn't and then horrible.

Working with wood veneer furniture – early considerations.

Commencement, you'll need to make up one's mind whether your piece is veneer or non.

Afterward gaining some experience, you can usually determine this past picking information technology up.

Forest veneer-covered furniture is usually a lot lighter than solid wood and just has an all-around more sturdy experience.

If you're contemplating purchasing the piece, and can't take a piece of sandpaper to it or take information technology autonomously, your all-time bet is to examine the forest grain.

Woods veneer ordinarily has a very subtle woods grain, without any serious carvings or differences. It nigh has a blueprint to it, as it is just strips set next to each other and glued.

The entire piece is normally covered with wood veneer as well, including underneath. Then looking under information technology or removing a drawer will usually tell y'all also.

If it'due south a vintage piece, try to detect a spot where the forest veneer is bubbling or lifting up from water damage or historic period.

If you already own the slice and desire to observe out; intermission out the sandpaper!

Attempt an area that's hidden or less visible on the slice. If the piece is painted, lightly sand the edge down and so that the wood is visible.

Usually, as in the image above, you should see a line nigh i/viii″ in where the wood veneer meets the wood or particleboard. If you lot accept a five in 1 tool or putty pocketknife and slide information technology in between the two, the woods veneer should lift up.

If y'all don't see a line and aren't able to elevator anything upward, and then your piece is about probable hardwood. At least in that spot…You are going to want to exam a few dissimilar areas on the slice to exist certain information technology's all hardwood.

Related: Best of List Part 1: The All-time Tools and Supplies for Refinishing Piece of furniture

Techniques For Restoring Wood Veneer Piece of furniture – The Choices Are:

Choice # 1: Repair the Woods Veneer

If the wood veneer is in pretty skillful shape, you could forgo the removal altogether and just repair damaged areas of the veneer.

Normal clothing and tear on forest veneer will mean lifting edges, bubbling from water spills, cracks, and chips.

A Whole Bunch of Mucilage, A Sander, and Some Paint Can Fix it upwards Nicely

If y'all do become this route, you're ameliorate off just painting the piece once repairs are finished. So basically you're looking to insure the piece is structurally sound, and any repairs can hands be covered with paint.

(Some wood filler or glue repairs tin be stained instead of painted with a few tricks I talk almost in my Staining Woods Filler Post, just staining wood veneer is not recommended either way.)

Cracks & Chips – Sand downward the edges and anywhere that y'all will be filling so that the wood filler has something to stick to.

If the scissure is large enough to take completely separated, use wood mucilage first to shut the crack together.

Clench the two sides together with these clamps or something similar:

Allow the glue dry out for at least 24 hours before removing the clamps.

Then make certain the expanse is free of paint, dust, and debris earlier applying the filler.

Use a putty knife to fill up in the rest of the cracks, chips, and gauges. Exist sure to overfill the area so that you tin sand it down to smooth in one case it dries.

Bubbles and Blisters: If there are large bubbling in your veneer, utilise a razor blade to slice a line down the center of the chimera. And then make full the flattened area with some wood glue, and heat it with either a heat gun or blow dryer. Use a putty knife to flatten it down.

Basically, practise what you have to in order to secure and flatten any damaged veneer.

Y'all can sometimes find matching wood veneer for repairs, merely if y'all plan to cover it with pigment it shouldn't matter either way.

Once the repairs are complete,  sand it all down with some 220-dust sandpaper until information technology's uniform, and paint it normally.

Or paint information technology abnormally! Have a spot to hibernate that you sanded through perhaps? Check out what I did to a Queen Ann Side Table I accidentally sanded through the veneer top on.

A Faux Marble Painted Terminate covered information technology up perfectly!

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Choice #two Switch it upwards a Bit!

This was my choice for the nigh recent dresser I've been working on. we had a fiddling trouble removing the wood veneer on a few of the drawers and so nosotros decided to simply go rid of them.

Scott got some dainty pino boards that were meant for flooring and lined the inside subsequently we ripped out the drawer slides. So he put ane straight across the middle for a shelf.

Nosotros painted the residuum of the piece and it came out beautifully!

Information technology was nice doing it this fashion considering I got a chance to put tea on the forest after sanding it perfectly. Then stained them before he installed them. To learn more about why I ever apply blackness tea before staining wood, you tin bank check out my preparing wood for staining article.

Other options for switching it up would be, to change out the acme of a tabletop that'due south covered in forest veneer with some other tiptop.  Yous can use tin, tile, rock, or even marble depending on how expensive you want to go with it.

If the forest veneer is even so in good shape, but you don't desire to pigment, you could too decoupage the area for something different.

Check out my latest tutorial on calculation Decoupage to a Glass and Woods Cabinet Door. Information technology would work perfectly on a forest veneered piece as well!

Selection #3: Removing the Wood Veneer

This method is the ane I use most oftentimes. Information technology's definitely not the most fun method, but when you get to the woods underneath – it all becomes worth it.

Before you begin the step of removing the wood veneer, you need to be sure that it'due south hardwood underneath.

Determining Particle Board vs. Hardwood

Sometimes you become lucky and the entire slice is hardwood. But a lot of pieces finish up having parts that are hardwood, and other parts (like the drawers or sides) are particleboard or plywood.

If instead of just 1 top layer of 1/viii″ thick wood veneer, y'all see multiple small layers throughout the piece of wood, yous're well-nigh likely looking at plywood.

Plywood is basically multiple pieces of veneer glued together with grains alternating for force.

If y'all see what looks like a bunch of tiny pieces of wood all smushed together and then glued….that is particleboard.

Normally I wouldn't recommend removing the woods veneer if you come across either of these underneath it. Until recently, I would say that your all-time choice would be my 1st choice: Repair the forest veneer.

But you tin can still remove the forest veneer and stop up with a beautiful piece. Simply expect at my Hand-Painted False Befouled Door Coffee Table!

I removed the veneer from the meridian of this table thinking it was hardwood throughout, simply to find out that the edges were wrapped in hardwood with a particleboard center (ugh).

Find out how I got information technology to look like this:

in my post Larn How to Paint Particle Board Article of furniture Afterwards You've Removed the Veneer.

That's the last resort though, you really desire hardwood nether the veneer if you go through with removing it.

One thing near forest veneer; it protects the hardwood underneath wonderfully. It's normally a pino or poplar wood, simply I honestly retrieve those are both some of the almost beautiful woods to stain.

Think your piece is a different wood type? Check out my Ultimate Guide To Identifying Wood Types in Furniture and figure information technology out!

Although, not e'er the easiest to stain well. If yous demand help with sanding and staining the hardwood after removing the wood veneer, you can check out my posts How to Sand Wood, Preparing Woods For Staining, and How to Stain Wood.

At present for removing this wretched wood veneer.

Put All of the Removal Techniques You've Learned During Your Inquiry Together for "The ULTIMATE Method For Removing Wood Veneer"

If you've landed on this post, I'thou certain y'all've read through quite a few others past now in search of the best method for taking this stuff off. I also researched for days!!

Nothing worked also as I wanted it to. Each attempt ended with me swearing and grumbling. Wondering why on earth I decided to exercise this. Again???

Trust me. I Experience YOUR Hurting.

Piece of furniture makers plainly didn't bet on someone xx-forty years down the line wanting to rip all this stuff off to expose the "cheap" wood underneath. Then they didn't exactly put a secret release button on the stuff. (Boy would that be overnice)

The sideboard pictured in a higher place was stripped completely with only a hairdryer and a 5 in one. Including the curved drawer fronts and cabinet doors.

The gorgeous Poplar that was beneath the wood veneer fabricated it all worth information technology in the cease, but I vowed to never spend that much time on a piece again!

And then basically, after trying the last "new" method I'd found for veneer removal, and convincing my other half to do all of it for me (no go). WE finally decided, "Screw information technology, what if nosotros did all of these things together??"

Now it's not the fastest method, only we endured a whole lot less swearing and anger through the process. (all him of class 😉 )

The Ultimate Method For Removing Wood Veneer From Article of furniture

(DISCLAIMER: I am in no way a professional person on this subject. Delight before using torches, irons, or chemicals of any kind exist sure to consult a professional if you are unsure about annihilation. E'er wear safety gear and read the alarm labels. If y'all feel uncomfortable using a torch on your piece, the last stride of this process tin exist skipped without a huge difference as well a bit more grunt work.)

How To Remove Woods Veneer From Forest Article of furniture

Full Time: i day and 29 hours

1. Lay damp towels or cloths over top of the wood veneer piece overnight.

    Damp, not soaking, but moisture enough that the surface of the piece is getting moistened.

2. The next twenty-four hour period, remove the clammy towels and rewet them.

   Place them on top of the slice once again.

3. Using an iron fix to cotton wool or the highest setting – iron over the top of the towels (beware at that place will exist a lot of sizzling and steam.)

    Exercise this slowly, leaving the iron in one spot for say 15 -20 secs at a time. Pay particular attention to the edges where yous tin slide your putty knife in for removal.

4. Afterwards you lot've sufficiently ironed your piece, remove the towels.

   Once more, let the piece sit down overnight to dry.

5. Now the Torch comes into play. Starting at the edge of the piece, slowly run the torch over the meridian of the veneer dorsum and forth in a modest section.

   

   Make sure you don't get out the torch on ane spot for as well long or the woods WILL catch on fire.

6. After the veneer is good and hot in that section, take your v in 1 tool working with the grain of the forest, stick it between the veneer and wood and slowly elevator it off.

   

   Later ALL of these steps, they should carve up like nix!

7. If there are even so whatever stuck spots, you tin can hit the 5 in 1 or putty knife with a hammer at the base of operations.

   

   Make certain you hold the tool parallel with the slice so you lot don't gauge out the forest underneath.

8. Piece of work your style around the piece with the torch, followed by scraping, ane section at a time.

   You should be able to remove very large pieces of veneer at once with this method.

Phew! I know that seems similar a crazy amount of steps for still scraping off the wood veneer with a putty knife, merely trust me, information technology helps A LOT.

The wood veneer should slide right off when you lot starting time scraping. Later on all of these steps, I scraped a whole dresser in about an hour. But it was a happy hour and that'due south the near important part!

In Conclusion:

The Possibilities Are Endless! Trashing Your Wood Veneer Article of furniture Should Now Be Concluding on Your Listing

I always vote to save a slice of woods furniture, over trashing it. Wood Veneer or not. I hope that you lot will do the aforementioned!

Whether you remove the wood veneer, repair information technology, or change the piece up altogether, you will be glad you didn't get rid of it years from now when its beauty is still affecting your life, mean solar day after day 🙂

Come Back Next Week For My Mail service on Staining Wood Filler

My next tutorial will be all virtually repairing forest furniture – and not covering it with pigment! I volition exercise my all-time to ensure that as many wood furniture lives are saved as possible.

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Thanks for reading!

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KRay

How To Fix A Veneer On An Old Table,

Source: https://kraycustomrefinish.com/restoring-wood-veneer-furniture/

Posted by: potterrapen1954.blogspot.com

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