Hope

So I have been dapping in creating new items to have with Refurbishing From The Heart. My first item I created was a wall hanging that says Hope.

If you are interested in a piece like this let me know what word you would like and what colors you would want. 

The Vanity

My most recent refurbishing project was for a client with an old vanity. My client loved the vanity, but knew it was in desperate need of a facelift. It needed the paint to be refreshed and wanted a pop of black on the table top.

Vanity Before

Refurbishing it took a good bit of time, about three weeks, since I was running into different issues due to the weather. I originally removed the paint and sanded the whole piece was able to paint it, until the humidity arrived. It bubbled and the veneer on the tabletop came up in large patches. So I had to removed it and clean up the table top once again.  After that was fixed it didn't take long to finish refurbishing the piece.

Vanity After

 My client wanted a white vanity and a black table top, so I used Behr's White and Carbon. They also wanted to keep the original hardware, since the vanity was once refinished by her mother a long time ago

I will have more projects coming up. I will post pictures soon!

How To Remove Veneer

So with my vanity project, I have been running into every issue that could come up. With the heat and humidity, it made all of the veneer on it bubble and crack throughout the piece. So I needed to remove it. I have come up with some steps on removing the veneer.

1. Pull off/ peel off any veneer with your hands.

If there is any part of the veneer that seems like it would be easy to peel off, try to do it since it will peel off in large chunks. I suggest that you where gloves when removing the veneer, so that you don't get any splinters

2. Use a metal scrapper or putty knife to loosen up pieces to peel.

Only use the corner of it to get underneath the veneer and not straight on. If you go straight on, you will more likely gouge the wood underneath.

3. If the veneer is still stubborn, use a hair dryer on high when the scraper is underneath the veneer.

You want to blow the hair dryer underneath the veneer, so that the glue will loosen and will make it easier to scrape up the veneer and possibly pull up.

4. Use a wet towel, if there is any hard/ stuck on pieces. 

Use an old towel and wet it with hot water and let it sit for about 20 minutes and they should just come up.

5. Blow Dry the glue and scrape up.

I have been told to use an iron to heat the glue, but I don't trust it and used the blow dryer. It still works, but takes a little bit longer. You want to keep the heat in a small area and scrape up the glue.

I hope my tips help you remove the old veneer on any of your pieces.