When Your Table Needs a Peel: Removing Veneer From Table Top

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A long time ago I knew someone who had a chemical peel on their face. I saw her just a few days after the procedure and let me tell ya — it was not pretty! But as the days and weeks went by, the red, burned, blistered surface of her face peeled away to reveal the freshest, clearest, most beautiful skin underneath.

What a transformation!

Well, that’s how I feel about this table makeover.

A friend gave me this writing table over 25 years ago. Whoever had ‘refinished’ it before didn’t do a very good job. They basically just put a very dark stain on it, slapped some polyurethane over it and called it good.

But I have always loved the shape of this little table. With it’s Queen Anne style cabriole legs, club feet and center drawer.

It’s had so many lives over the years.

From a desk in my decorating store.

To a bedside table in our master bedroom 18 years ago.

I had been looking for a little desk for Loren’s room for months but couldn’t find anything that worked.

Then I realized this little piece was the perfect size and style.

But that finish!

Ugh!!

Definitely time for a re-do.

The first thing we did was strip all the poly off of it with a chemical stripper.

Then we needed to peel all the veneer off of the top because it was damaged.

Whoever redid this piece before I got it just stained and polyurethaned right over the damaged veneer.

Removing veneer from a table top is not hard to do but it was the most labor-intensive part. We used a heat gun (hotter than a blow dryer), scrapers and lots of muscle.

The trick is to heat up the glue to loosen it so you can pry off the top layer. It also helped to tap the scraper with a hammer on some of the stubborn spots. Our table had 2 layers of veneer (which is not uncommon) so when we got the first layer off, we had a whole other layer to whack away at.

Mr. Redoux and I took turns working on it. When we got it all stripped off, we sanded it smooth.

It was hard work. But it was really rewarding to see the clean, fresh pine underneath.

But now we have a problem. The top is now raw, basically new wood.

And the rest of it….

…still has the dark reddish-brown stain all over it. And we’re never going to get all that off. No matter how much we sand it.

I originally wanted to do a pickled finish on it. But unless I could get all that stain off, it wasn’t going to work.

So I decided I would just pickle the top and paint the base.

Basically, a pickled finish is just applying watered down paint or primer to raw wood and wiping it off so the wood shows through. I used the same chalk paint for the pickling that I used for the rest of the table. I just mixed it about 1 part paint to 2 parts water. I bushed it on and wiped it off until I got the finish I was looking for.

Now it was time to paint the legs and base:

First I put on two coats of white, shellac-based primer to block the stain from bleeding through my chalk paint.

Then I applied two coats of chalk paint, waited for it to dry, then sanded it. Once it was all sanded smooth, I applied a coat of finishing wax. Quick tip: mist your sandpaper with a little bit of water from a spray bottle and it will help you sand your chalk paint to a super smooth finish. Be sure not to use too much water or it will take too much paint off.

Next I added the crystal knobs.