Mission Sideboard Refinishing

 

This is a rather poor picture of a Mission sideboard I refinished for someone.  The piece had already been stripped when I started working on it except for the interior behind the doors.  The original finish was some very dark shade of brown, I originally thought just the interior had been painted black.   As I continued to work on it I discovered it was in fact stain.

I find it interesting to see how older furniture is built.   In this case there were a couple of cardinal rules violated regarding wood movement.  As a result, the case sides and top had some splits in them.  The major problem with the piece to begin with was that the veneer was coming loose in several places and the drawers were falling apart. 

It took quite some effort to re-glue the veneer and the drawers.  After I rebuilt it as much as time would allow, I shot it with a coat of vinyl sealer followed by two coats of satin lacquer.

The thing that first caught my eye even in its original state was the geometric inlays on the front; no work had to be done to these.