Restoring a STUNNING Art Deco Burlwood Cabinet | Veneer Repair & Refinishing

Today's project is this beautiful antique hutch. Now I found this on an online auction for about $75. You can see it has some beautiful curves, gorgeous details. Obviously it has some damage along the top there and I have kind of this weird glaze on the outside, but some really beautiful details. I'm not really sure what they were doing, but they did drill several holes in the back of it. So we're going to have to figure out what to do with that. But it's kind of petite, but it's so pretty. And I've been pushing it around the garage for six months. So it's time to get it done. Excited to get all that finish off and see what it can look like. So I'm going to start by taking off all of the hardware. It has these little covers over the screws. It's one of those like antique. I'm kind of dating this. I looked it up on chat GPT. I'm dating this to the thirties. I think it's 1930. You can tell by just the style of the hardware and just a lot of the little details. So Art Deco, 1930s. That's kind of what I'm thinking. You can tell me in the comments if you think I'm wrong, but that's kind of what I think it is. So I'm going to just take all of this off. Like I said, the lock is kind of weird. I'm going to see if I have a key for it that might work. But for right now, I'm just going to take all of the hardware off, take the doors off and then start stripping. I like to put all of my hardware in little bags just to keep it all separate. So I have the left door, the right door, and then I'll have the both of the drawers on the bottom as well. Today I'm using Smart Strip. This is by Dumond and you can find it on Amazon. First time I found it, I found it at my local Sherwin-Williams. So it's one of the more eco-friendly green products. You do have to let it set a little bit longer, but you don't have those really strong fumes that you have with some of the other strippers that you can get at big box stores. So I let it set, do its thing. There really wasn't a lot of finish left. So I'm using a carbide scraper, but I am using it like a putty knife. I'm just basically pulling it across the drawer very carefully. This is a really old piece. So if it is from the thirties, we're talking, it's almost a hundred years old. So I'm trying to be really careful. This is a veneer. And so my process is I put it down, the stripper down, then I'll pull it off with a carbide scraper or a putty knife. Then I will get off the residue with some acetone. And then my final step that I've been doing lately is I'm using a finish cleaner or a degreaser with a very soft brush. And I'm just getting off any additional residue. My goal is to try to get down to raw because I don't want to have to do a lot of sanding. So I'm trying to get as much finish off as I can. And then that way I can move on to a light sanding after that. Okay, I have wood syringes, wood glue syringes for just like tight bond, but this is an antique piece. So I'm going to try to stay true to the piece and use hide glue. So I don't know if this will go in here or not, but I'm going to try it. I'm going to try to put it in one of these and see if it'll actually work. It's so cold out here in the garage. Probably need to heat this up. That's going to be a problem. I need to keep this inside. I'm going to go heat it up. Okay, I'm going to put this in some warm water and loosen it up a little bit. And then we'll come back and make these repairs. While I'm waiting for my glue to heat up, I'm going to go through my veneer stash and find one that I think might be a good fit for a replacement. So this, I'm just putting a little bit of teenager alcohol and water on it. So that's going to be my final tone. And we're trying to find something that I think will work. These are mahogany. It's too bad. It's a beautiful burl. And I have some edge banding too. That might, this is walnut. That might actually work as well. Grain-wise, that probably, obviously it's a lot browner, but that looks pretty good. I might actually use that. And that's nice and liquidy. I'm going to try to put it in this dispenser. Well, at least it's a clean break. Okay, although the grain looks pretty good with this walnut, I just feel silly putting it on an antique piece. So I think I'm going to pass on the iron-on edge banding. And I'm going to go with one of these others that are closer match. So this is mahogany. I'm not feeling it because, let me show you the color. I'm going to have to color correct anyway, so it's not like a huge deal. But you can see that this is a lot redder, but I could color correct this. This one, I feel like it's probably too dark. The graining, bad though. A little bit more of a browner tone, and it's a tiny piece, so that's a good one. This one, I'm feeling the grain pattern matches as well. This is just another piece of mahogany. So this is not the same wood, but I'm kind of feeling like this one has a little bit more of the brown and a little bit more of the graining pattern that I think would work. So I'm going to go with this one. I'm going to let all this dry out, and then I'll come back and make my template. Okay, I'm going to start sanding the doors. Now, there's a few little areas that I didn't get all of the finish off of. And so I'm not going to sand this with a sander because this is really old. And so I'm going to be really careful with the veneer. So I'm going to hand sand all of this. And so I'm going in with 80 grit, which is really coarse, so you got to be really careful. I'm using a very light hand. I'm just going to get off a couple of these spots that had a little bit extra finish left. That's it. Just really light. You can tell because it's like, you can see it kind of reflects in the light. So you know you've got a little bit more area here. I'm going to do a little bit more here. Sometimes it helps if I get a bondo scraper and wrap it around that knife. It helps me to get into those little areas. Okay, the finish is off. Very lightly, and I don't want to go crazy on the 80. That's really rough. Okay, so I'm going to go over those areas that I just did with 120. Let me grab it. Because I'm going to work in progressive grit, so I'm going to do 120 next, just on those areas. And I'm going to do 180. So that's where I'm going to start on this piece. Again, I got most of the finish off, so I don't have to go in aggressive. I'm just going to basically get it ready to oil. So when you have a thing like this, you just got to kind of pick a, because it's like, which direction is the grain? So you pick one and you go. So I'm going to go vertical. Okay, and then I'll dust it off. So for the next grit, I did 180, and now I'm going to move up to 220. I'm going to do the same thing that I just did. And then I'm going to clean it with a 50-50 mixture of denatured alcohol and water. I'm looking for any spots that I might've missed. This is going to show me what it looks like if I just simply oil it or put a clear coat of some kind on it. And it's gorgeous. Just beautiful. So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to have to carefully sand these areas here and all of the edges and do some more repairs. But that's how I did the door. This little tool comes in really handy for small areas so you can get them. And you don't want to sand across the grain because then you'll have weird scratch patterns. So you want to try to stay with the grain as much as possible. Now I'm ready to do my veneer patching on the top. So I'm making a little template with some painter's tape. I'll take that off and then I'm going to attach it to the veneer and trying to decide what part of the pattern I want. So I kind of line it up and then I put my patch on the veneer, trim it to size and then just glue it down. And then if I have any other additional areas that need to be filled in, I can fill it in with a little bit of oil and then I will use some Blend All Stix to just blend everything in. So you can see I'm using some wood epoxy. I did a lot of veneer repair and then, you know, sometimes you don't get a perfect fit and sometimes there were just cracks in the veneer. So I'm filling in any voids with some of the Mohawk wood epoxy just to kind of make everything smooth and seamless. It's difficult to sand the legs. I decided I'm just going to put a coat of stripper on them because it's a really thick finish. And so I'm putting that on, trying to get off as much of the finish as I can. And at the end of the day, it just kind of all got stuck in the grooves. You can see I have a little dental tool here and I'm just trying to get out any of that stripping residue. So I decided let's just take them off. It's always a risk taking vintage things apart, but I felt like I could get a really good refinish if I just take them off. So some of them had nails holding them in and some of them didn't. So there was a little bit of glue residue. So I just was able to scrape all of that off and it's going to really help, I think, get a good refinish. So I was a bit hesitant to take off the legs, but as you can see, I'm going to be able to get into these areas a lot better by having those legs off. And so it's just going to give me a cleaner refinish. So it's just always the thought of, well, are they going to go back on the same way? But I do think it's a better refinish to be able to get into those areas because I had all that gunk in the, you know, when I put the stripping, you know, the stripper there, there's all that gunk in there. So this way I can get a really nice clean line. So I'm going to use 80 grit on just the areas where I have some finish left, just to get those little areas free of finish. I want to be really careful because I don't want to blow through any veneer. That's also why in hand sanding, I'm not going to use my orbital because, you know, I do not want to blow through any of this vintage veneer. So once I have those spots off, like I said, I'm just hitting those spots with the 80 because 80 is aggressive. I am aware of that, but I'm just hitting it with those. Okay, so just those areas. Now I'm going to move up to 120. Just to make sure I have a light hand on it, but I'm using something like this so that I get even consistency and pressure. Okay, if you see it from this side, you can see I still have some finish, some darker finish here, and then I missed a spot here. So I'm going to go back down to the 80. Because if you miss a spot, you just go back down. If it doesn't come out at the higher grit, you just got to move back down. So any areas I miss, I go back over. That area right there is getting thin, so that's why I want to be so careful. So now I'm going to move up to 180. I'll clean it off. This is a 50-50 mixture of denatured alcohol and water. And I'm going to kind of look down and make sure I don't see any extra sandy twirls, which I shouldn't obviously have. I'm going to look and see if I have any other areas that need to be sanded. Okay, looks really good. Now, I do have a couple spots over here. I do have a spot right here that looks like the veneer is lifted. Yeah, the veneer is lifted there, so I need to glue that down. And then I have a spot right here. There's a spot right here where it's just missing. So I'm going to glue that one, and I'll fill this one and get that repair made. I'm using Mohawk. They're wood epoxy. It's a two-part system that's built in. There's a brown on the outside. They come in different colors. And then there's like a white on the inside. So I'm just going to cut off what you need. I'm not going to need much. I'm just going to cut a little bit off. A little goes a long way. I'm going to knead it between my hands. So I put a little bit in there. I'm going to leave it a little bit proud. That way, when I sand it, it should be smooth. So I'll let that set up. And if I have to come back and do a second layer, I will. So I have a little impression right here. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to try to use a steam iron, and I'm going to try to raise the grain. It's on the back. You probably wouldn't see it very much, but I figure while I'm at it, I'm going to just try to see if I can get that out because that's a pretty significant little dip. So I've got a wet cloth here, and I've got a steam iron, and I'm just going to apply it and let it set for a few seconds. I don't want to burn the wood. I'm just trying to raise the grain. I'll have to do several applications. See if I can get it raised. Okay, it's not 100%. And it's a little bit there. I may do a couple more treatments, but it's a lot better than it was. So we're getting there. I'll do a little bit more. I had a little area that had some veneer that was lifted, and there really wasn't an area to really kind of be able to get underneath there. So I'm just spreading out some hide glue. I'm going to press it underneath there the best I can with a straight edge, and then I'll clamp it up, and it actually turned out really good. So now I'm going to start the repairs on the drawers. I have all of my areas. I have them filled with the wood epoxy. When I sand all that smooth, I want to make sure that that area is really smooth. So I may have to do a second coat of the epoxy. I also have a wood fill that I may have to fill in a few areas for. So before I do my repairs, I really want to make sure that the substrate is really smooth. Okay, I'm going to try to fill this in before I oil. So what I like to do is I like to spritz the wood around the repair so I kind of know the color tone that I'm going for. And then I'm going to use, these are Blend All Stix from Mohawk. So I'm going to start light, and then I'll work my way to the color that I want. So I'm going to start light, fill it in. I tend to use lots of colors because wood is not one color. You can see that's really close. Okay, and then I'm going to seal it and come back and do some more, but I'll seal it with, this is Easy Vinyl Seal. You can also seal it with shellac, but I'm going to seal it. And then I can come back and do some more touch-ups after that's dry. I'm going to use the same process on the drawers that I did on the side. So I'll make sure everything's sanded smooth, and then I'm going to use my Blend All Stix. You'll see I end up having to light them with a lighter. It's really cold outside when I was doing this. And so I had to warm up some of my Blend All Stix. I don't normally have to do that, but I had to warm up a little bit so I could get them to spread out smoothly. So I'll do a layer, seal it with the Easy Vinyl Sealer. Now you can see on this area, sometimes you just mess up. And so if you mess up, all you need to do is take it off with some mineral spirits and you can just start over. So that's what I did with this area. I wasn't pleased with it, so I just took it off and I'm trying again. Once all my repairs are made, then I'm ready to do my sealing. Now, because I'm not staining this, that's why I did my repairs first. And so I'm using Osmo Polyax Hard Wax Oil. And this is a really beautiful finish to use, especially when you have a highly figured wood. And so I love this product. It's best if you use it over raw wood. So you can apply it with a couple different methods. It depends on how you apply it with how durable it is. So it's the most durable when you put it on with a roller or a brush because you're just applying more product. Now you should be able to just let it set, but as you'll see later, sometimes you need to pull back the excess. So I'm gonna let it set for a few hours, see how much it'll soak into the wood. This is a really beautiful finish because it's actually also repairable. So if you need to repair something, like if you have a scratch or anything, all you have to do is give it a light sand and you can reapply the oil. And so it's kind of like the old shellac or lacquer finishes how they kind of blend into each layer kind of blends into each other. This is kind of like that. So I really like it because it is repairable. It's water resistant, especially if you put it over raw wood, it's not as durable if you're putting it over stain, but that's why I like to use it on these kinds of pieces where it's just such a beautiful figured wood that it really makes the grain pop. So this is not drying the way I want it to. So I'm kind of freaked out about it. I tried to let it dry naturally, which you can do if you roll it, but I'm concerned that it's gonna gum up on me. So I'm gonna remove some of it, the excess. I'm just doing it with some mineral spirits because mineral spirits will, you know, remove it. So I'm just gonna remove the excess because I'd have to do a second coat tomorrow anyway. So I'm just gonna make sure that I don't ruin it. Typically I remove the excess, but you can let it set if you put a thin enough coat on. So I don't know if I put too thick a coat on or maybe it's just because it's cold, but just in case, I don't want to mess it up. So I'm just gonna remove the excess and then I will do a second coat tomorrow. So in between my coats, I'm gonna do a wet sand. So I'll use 600 grit, put a little bit of water on it, just kind of sand it, wipe it back, and then I'm gonna do my second coat. This time I'm using just a Bondo spreader, spread it around, I'll pull off the excess, and then I'll wipe off any excess with a lint-free cloth. And this is a satin, it's a beautiful sheen. And so I will do a third coat on the top as well, just to make sure that it's really nice, durable surface. Now I'm gonna work on the inside. You know, I have those areas where they drilled a whole bunch of holes. So I have some really thin wood and I'm going to measure the openings and I'm going to cut it. So if you have a table saw, that would be the easiest way to do this, but I don't have a table saw, so I just set up my circular saw with a straight edge and I'm going to make my cuts. So it makes it real easy. If you don't have a table saw, this is a nice alternative. So once I have them sized, then I'm going to use some glue. So I have this glue, you put it on one side and then you have a spray activator on the other, and then you just put it together and it creates an instant bond. So let's have a little chat about the wallpaper. I was gonna paper it today, and last night I woke up, it's like four o'clock in the morning and I started thinking about, I got a little problem with where it's gonna be placed. This is a really thick paper. It's like, it is, it's fabric is what they put it on. It's industrial. And so my concern is where I'm going to end it. Let me show you. My concern is, is that if I end it right here, that you're gonna see this and that it's gonna be, it's thicker and I don't want it to come up, you know, but I can't wrap it around because it might interfere with the door swinging shut and then, you know, over time that might flip up because anytime you do a curve, it's really difficult to maintain it like that. So I was like, well, what am I gonna do? Because I put these panels in this morning and they're gonna help me to get, you know, gotta cover them up. And so I'm kind of thinking about maybe just doing wallpaper along the back and not doing it anywhere else. So I think what I'm gonna do is I'm going to tone the rest of this interior with some nutmeg because I do have, you know, this part's just a little, you know, faded and such. So I've already done this side. It looks really rich, beautiful. And so I think what I'll do is tone this and then I will seal it tomorrow. That way, you know, no matter how they use this, if they use it for, you know, a drinks cabinet or something, it needs to be really durable. So I'll put a couple coats of polyurethane on it tomorrow and then I can work on the back. So I think I'm just simply going to wallpaper the back of it, cover all that up, and I think it'll look really nice. So that's the plan. I'm gonna do the same process for the back of the doors. They also needed a little bit of love, so they're gonna get the same gel stain treatment just to kind of revive them as well. And then once everything dries, I'll come back the next morning and we will seal it. I'll put two coats of an oil-based polyurethane on that for the interior as well as the doors and that'll be nice and protected. I did a coat of nutmeg on the legs, but I felt like they needed to be a little bit richer. So I have some brown mahogany that I'm going to layer over that. And I think that's gonna give me the tone that I'm looking for. So I'm gonna start by applying the wallpaper glue to the back. So I'm gonna make sure I kind of protect that area because I've already, you know, stained it and then I did a top coat. So I'm gonna put a little bit of paper there and protect that. Then I'm going to apply the glue to the back and I'll have to let it set for about 15, 20 minutes before I can try to apply the wallpaper. I'm just holding it up to see how much I need to cut off. So I have a little bit of extra on each side and then I'll make my cut. While that's waiting and the glue is setting, I will soak my hardware in a little bit of boiling water and some vinegar and then I'll come back and polish it up. In the meantime, I'm gonna set up my laser level. I love to use my laser level anytime I'm doing any kind of wallpaper. This one attaches right to my tripod and that way I kind of know where my center mark is. So it's already been setting up. Now I'm gonna try to apply it. So I have my center mark there. I'm smoothing everything out and as you can see, it's just gonna come right off. It's just coming right down. It's not staying on. So that's not gonna work. So what I'm gonna have to do is I'm gonna pivot and I'm going to apply the wallpaper glue on the actual paper itself. I have a lot of little bitty divots in the middle and I need to get it into those grooves. So I'm going to apply it, book it, let it set for 15, 20 minutes. While that's setting up, I'm going to apply the oil to the legs. Second time I tried it, it worked much better. So it definitely worked putting the wallpaper glue on the actual paper itself. So I just got it adhered and did all of my little trims. Now I'm ready to put the legs back on. I'm gonna put a little bit of glue on there, hammer them back in, screw them in, and I think they'll be perfect. Hardware's been soaking, so now I'm going to bring it out and I'm gonna use Bar Keeper's Friend in 4-0t steel wool just to give it a nice polish. I had a lot of tarnish on these, but you couldn't even hardly see the design. But once I had them polished up, you could really see that design. I had a crisis yesterday. I was putting my hutch together and the doors wouldn't shut and the lock is kind of messed up. So let me show you. So this has a mechanism that locks. And so I had it locked, unfortunately. And so when I put it together, I literally could not get it apart. So I had to do a card reader in there and jimmy the lock. And then this part tore off. I had to re-glue it. Thank God it worked and I was able to re-oil it, but it's still not working. So let me show you the problem I'm having. Here's what's happening. This doesn't stay in when I have a lock or a key. It doesn't stick in. But if I close this door, there is a thing here that can lock it. I'm not gonna put that on yet. So if I do this and then do this, it doesn't close all the way. I mean, you have to really shove it. Now I can shut it together so that it goes in and then it's together, but it takes some force to really get it out. So I have looked high and low for a lock replacement, but nothing is the specifications. Should I try to get it fixed? Should I just let it be like a dummy lock? And I could put some like latches. I could put some magnetic latches here to hold it. And then it could just be a dummy lock. What do you think? So I went and got the lock back from the locksmith and he ended up not being able to get it to work either. He thought he had a key that would work. And so it worked for a second and then it stopped. So we decided, he said, let me just take it out. So he took out the latch part. So I was able to get it to shut yesterday. So I adjusted some hinges and such and it shuts perfectly. And it's perfectly lined up. Now this side I can close, but this side I'm gonna need something to hold it. So what I've decided to do is I'm going to install just a little magnetic catch right here. And then I'll have the corresponding magnetic little piece here and I'll attach that. And then that should hold it shut. So that's the last little piece. And then I did order a keyhole from D Lawless. Not sure if it's gonna fit or not. And so it's on its way, but I'll see if it fits. But that will be the last little piece of this puzzle. Well, let's look back at the before. This was a gorgeous piece and I really loved, first thing I saw about it were those beautiful curves on the sides there, such a gorgeous detail. You know, it had a lot of damage just on the edges. So you had some on the doors and then I had some on the drawers. It had a weird finish, you know, we had those holes in it and then had the finish on the outside that had like, I don't know, it was somehow like a black glaze around it. So I was really concerned with how it was going to refinish. I just wasn't sure. But after all of that work, here is the finished product. What do you think? Turned out pretty good, didn't it? I was really concerned about that black glaze. What was it going to look like underneath there? But honestly, it's so much more beautiful without that weird glaze on it. There's just something about that Osmo Polyx oil just really makes this type of highly figured wood pop. I love it. I really do like the, you can get it in gloss, but I got it in the satin sheen this time. So here's my final solution with the lock. You can see it's just a dummy lock. I installed the catches and it works perfectly. It's perfectly aligned, no problems. So, you know, it's got to work. It's got to function as well. It can't just be beautiful. I am waiting on the keyhole still, but I'm hoping it will fit. Having to open up the top every time with a key isn't really realistic. Now in my stash, I did find some keys that work for the bottom drawers. So that's nice. So I will include this to the new buyer and that way they can at least have the key for the bottom drawers, which is cool. But love all those little beautiful lines on the sides. Wallpaper turned out great because it's kind of, you know, industrial, commercial. It's going to be super durable, no problems. Didn't even have to seal it, but man, this was a gorgeous piece. Now, what do I list it for? I've already had people reach out to me. They're interested in it. So what do you think? Did you like this one? Tell me in the comments and thanks so much for watching.