We are moving along on the restoration work of an 1900's French Armoire. I don't know if you can understand the scale from the photo above, but is is a very large, tall, impressive piece of furniture. Unfortunately someone left it stored where it sat in water and the intricate veneer work became damaged as you can see in the two following pictures. These photos capture just a small percentage of the really quite extensive veneer damage.
Any veneer that has turned grey and lifted away from the base wood, has been damaged by the water. It turns brittle, discolored and has to be completely replaced. Because of all the precise angles at which the veneer was originally cut, this made our repair job much more difficult. We had to exactly match the original cuts and angles, any error and it would stand out like a big reg sign.
Besides all the veneer that had to be repaired, some of the doors and panels were warped or swelled, because of the water damage. In some cases we needed to plane the edges down to fit into their frames, in other cases such as in the photo to the left, we had to re-soak the wood and clamp it down as it dried, so that it would dry flat. We also had to completely replace the veneer on the doors which was lengthy work.
Now that the repairs are just about completed, it is time to move on to the next phase. The entire piece has to be prep sanded, stained and finished. Our client is coming in this weekend to choose her stain color and I am looking forward to seeing what she decides to go with.
Besides all the veneer that had to be repaired, some of the doors and panels were warped or swelled, because of the water damage. In some cases we needed to plane the edges down to fit into their frames, in other cases such as in the photo to the left, we had to re-soak the wood and clamp it down as it dried, so that it would dry flat. We also had to completely replace the veneer on the doors which was lengthy work.
