How To Repair Damaged Veneer Before Painting Furniture

Today’s contributor is Patricia from The Wood Spa. She is sharing a tutorial on how to repair damaged veneer. All posts contributed by Patricia for Grillo Designs can be found HERE.

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Luckily for those of us who love restoring and painting furniture, there is a lot of people trying to get rid of incredible high-quality, solid-wood pieces of furniture just because they have some scratches and chipped veneer.

 

 

Here in the Unites States, a country of extremely high levels of consumption and waste, it is not hard to find treasures like this beautiful desk available for free or less than $50.

 

 

In this post I will show you step by step how I repair damaged veneer in order to achieve a flat and smooth surface, ready to receive paint (I also have a video tutorial at the end of this post, so dont forget to watch). This post contains affiliate links for your convenience – please see full disclosure here

 

 

HOW I REPAIR DAMAGED VENEER

This desk had several spots with damaged or missing veneer. The bottom areas and corners are typically the most affected by this annoying problem.

 

 

After trying several products, my current favorite is Minwax High Performance Wood Filler which you can buy here. It is easy to work with, dries super hard, and it won’t shrink or deform after I paint it. It is comparable to bondo, which also works very well for this purpose.

 

 

The white paste you add to the wood filler is what makes it super hard. Once mixed, the filler dries quite fast so it is best to prepare a small amount and work just a two or three of spots at a time.

 

 

With a thin putty knife, I apply a generous amount of wood filler to the damaged area.

 

 

I wait between 30 minutes and 2 hours before sanding the filled spots with a rough sandpaper (60-80 grit). You can also use an electrical sander for this step.

 

 

Next I use a finer grit (220) to smooth out the area.

 

 

Most times when working on larger spots, tiny holes or imperfections remain in the filled areas. I like to do the touch-ups of those with a softer wood filler like this one, applying it with my fingers and then light sanding with a 220 grit sandpaper after an hour or so.

 

 

I do as many touch-ups as necessary until the affected area looks and feels totally smooth and leveled.

 

 

This is the finished desk. Can you tell where the damaged areas were?

 

 

 

 

Here are some other examples of pieces I painted that had a lot of damaged veneer!

 

GRAY AND PINK BUFFET

NAIL HEAD TRIM DRESSER

 

As always, feel free to ask any questions before or while working on your next project. I will be more than happy to answer them!

Here is a quick video! 

 

 

SAVE IT TO PINTEREST SO YOU DON’T FORGET IT!

You can follow me on social media here:

 

PINTEREST / INSTAGRAM / FACEBOOK/ YOUTUBE

 

And dont forget to visit my blog The Wood Spa

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Patricia.

 

 

IF YOU LIKED THIS PROJECT YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE THIS TUTORIAL ON HOW TO PAINT IKEA FURNITURE

 

 

OR THIS POST ON HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE CHALK PAINT

 

 

AND IF YOU’RE WONDERING HOW TO USE CHALK PAINT  – HERE’S A GREAT TUTORIAL FOR THAT TOO!