Refinishing and Veneer Repair on a Mahogany Buffet  

 

 

Chances are good that the project you are endeavoring on won't be as well worn as this buffet. So if this buffet can turn out as well as it did, use that as inspiration towards what you can achieve.  Refinishing shouldn't be scary, it's a lot of fun!  As long as you have the right frame of mind and take your time, you'll be amazed at what you can do yourself.

 

As with most projects, this one starts with removing the drawers, doors and the hardware. 

 

  

 

As you can see, the veneer damage on the bottom was severe. In situations such as this, it looks much worse than it is. As far as veneering goes, a flat surface like this bottom rail is fairly easy to re-veneer. On the front, we'll opt for gluing the loose veneer and using a filler to build up the areas the veneer is missing. I will show you how to do this in video #1 below.  We'll then touch up the filler after staining and sealing.

  

 

 

  

I like to do all the glue and veneer repair before I do any finish stripping.  Why, you ask?  The stripper will not effect the new glue or veneer once it's dry. However, if you do the stripping first, the stripper residue may effect the new glue's adhesion to the substrate and may cause your job to fail and all your effort would have been in vain. We'll start by gluing the loose veneer on the front. Once that is glued up, we'll scrape off the old veneer on both sides and re-veneer.

 

In this video (#1),  I'll show you some fill & gluing tricks I use when repairing veneer.

 

  

In this video (#2),  I'll show you how to remove the old veneer and prepare the surface for re-veneering.

 

  

In This Video (#3),  I show you step by step how to re-veneer the bottom side of this sideboard. I will show you some tricks that you don't want to miss. 

We'll do this veneering in a way that you won't need any clamps or a fancy woodshop.

 

 

Below, you can see that the veneer is not the only problem with this buffet, and refinishing is in order as well.

 

I stripped the entire buffet and sanded to 120 grit with the orbital and by hand. For guidance and info. on all the following refinishing procedures, refer to the resource pages and our other tutorials.

 

Staining was done using Mohawk brand Brown Mahogany wiping stain.

 

 

Below: After the stain dried, I sealed it with shellac sealer.

 

 

For the final finish, I used Sherwin Williams pre catalyzed lacquer. I then polished and installed the hardware. I have a very easy way of doing this. You will find out my simple technique for hardware in another tutorial.

 

 

 The finished Buffet.....

 

 

 

I hope you found this episode inspiring!

HAPPY FINISHING