Saving Furniture: Removing Veneer and Replacing with Paint

Hello!

Today I am sharing a piece of furniture I found as trash set out by the road.

It was damp and moldy, the drawers stuck, and the veneer was coming up all over the top.

I let it dry out in our shed over the summer as it gets very hot in there.
I was happy and surprised that the drawers then worked much easier,

so I decided to try to save the piece to use in our basement.

After I scrubbed the whole piece off well, I set to work on that ragged veneer.

Getting the veneer off was a job,

but mostly just because it takes a lot of patience and time.

I am not fond of jobs that take patience, but I thought this would be worth it.

(I watched the Olympics while I worked, so that made the time go by.

I will think of skiing when I look at it for some time, I think).

I placed a wet towel all of the top of the piece and let it soak for several hours.

Then I came back and pried up what would come off.
There were two layers to the veneer that had to be removed.

 This process was repeated over and over again for about 3 days,

working on it as I had the chance 

and soaking pieces that were too stubborn.

 When the veneer was finally off,

I went over the whole top of it and spread wood filler in any holes or dings

and smeared a thin layer of it over the whole things 

(this works best if the whole surface is slightly damp).

This helped smooth out the surface as it was rather rough.

I then sanded the whole top with a small grit sandpaper

and then wiped it all off with a damp rag to remove the dust.

I then base coated the surface with the color I wanted to use,

let it dry,

measured the whole surface and divided it and marked it with chalk,...

and laid out a plan of design on the top.

I used Frog tape for the lay out of the pattern.

Once I had painted the color into the design,

I let it dry some and then pulled off the Frog tape.

Once dried, I added some vines, leaves, and flowers which you can see >HERE<.

I am working on redoing the basement and can't wait until it is finished.

I am excited to show you the details when it is done:

the coat closet my husband built from old cupboard doors and cedar planks,

the bright new colors of the walls,

the painted and speckled floor,

the new wall art...

it is going to be great to finally have that room looking nice!

Thanks for stopping by.



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