Spring One Room Challenge Week Six: How to Remove Veneer from Wood Furniture

Week One | Week Two | Week Three | Week Four | Week Five

Week Six already?! We are in the home stretch now and truly have the hardest work completely behind us now. This week I turned my attention to refinishing a dresser that was already in the room. You may remember it from the before photos.

This dresser was mine as a kid, and my mom’s before that. It’s been painted a countless number of times throughout my life, and the blue was just its most recent iteration. Several years ago, I attempted to strip it, but it was covered in a midcentury veneer style that I just didn’t love, and so I painted it again. I know a little more about furniture restoration and antiques than I did several years ago, so this time I decided the time was right to remove the veneer and see what was underneath.

I started out with a layer of SmartStrip. It’s a nontoxic paint stripper that cuts through multiple layers. I’ve only used it once before, but it’s what I had on hand, and it’s relatively safe for indoor use since there’s almost no odor, so I figured it was my best bet. I wrapped in plastic wrap and let it sit overnight.

Now, I expected it to take off the paint, but what I didn’t expect was for it to begin lifting the veneer as well. After about 24 hours, some of the veneer had begun to bubble. Which was a pleasant surprise for me, because my goal was to remove the veneer anyway. However, if you have a piece that has veneer you’d like to keep, SmartStrip is going to be too strong.

One coat of SmartStrip was enough to remove about 80% of the veneer! I saved myself a step of removing the paint first and then the veneer which is what I assumed I would have to do, but there was still some that needed another method to remove.

I used some old hand towels (they should be thicker than rags, but they will be ruined, so you want to use ones you don’t care about), and got them damp with the hottest water I could handle. I laid the damp towels over the veneer, and then set my iron on top of it.

It creates a ton of steam, which loosens the glue so that the veneer can be removed fairly easily with a putty knife.

I actually found this to be easier physically than scraping with the SmartStrip, but it was more time consuming.

Once I had all the veneer scraped off, I had to sand myself into oblivion. I sanded with an 80 grit, a 120 grit, and finally a 220 grit to make sure everything was super smooth. I then coated with a coat of polyurethane (water based because I was working on it indoors and didn’t want to deal with the odors). I did two coats of polyurethane, with a light sand with 220 grit sandpaper in between.

You can see in the photo above that I didn’t strip the paint from the bottom of the drawers, which if you look closely, you can see all the different color lives its lived. The purple was the color it was in my own baby nursery!

And now, it looks like the antique heirloom piece that it is! The pine looks so lovely in its natural state, and I am so glad I decided to leave it this color and not stain it. The hardware is the same hardware that was previously on it, but sporting a fresh coat of Rub N Buff in Antique Gold.

You’ll have to pardon the photo angle, I’m strategically hiding a few elements in the room I’m not ready to share yet. So you’ll have to check back for the full reveal in just two weeks to see how the dresser looks in its new home!

Be sure to check out the other participants’ weekly updates, and stay tuned, because the reveal will be here before you know it! That’s all for today, friends! Have a fabulous day!