My next project involves a sweet little oak washstand that has issues. Reminds me of me! Pretty good mostly but a few flaws around the edges. I am so ready to paint this little thing but there was a problem with the veneer coming up along the edges. My husband, who just happens to be the best handyman~ ever, glued and clamped the veneer and I was about to be in business. But I was working on my back porch and the dampness from all the rain we’ve had lately caused the rest of the veneer to come loose!!! I mean, the whole sheet of it lifted off all at once. Guess which part stayed? You got it…the part my husband glued. I mean it was ON there and not going anywhere.
So this morning I decided to have a Come to Jesus meeting with one veneered washstand. It was glue, right? I understand it was some powerful glue but I had a more powerful friend. No, I’m not calling on Jesus to remove veneer….another friend not quite so powerful…My trusty iron. I gathered everything I needed and headed to the porch. I tried to force myself on the little varmint one last time, but it was no use. He was not budging. At that point I decided to take drastic measures.
I wet an old dish towel and heated up my steam iron filled with lots of water. I placed the towel over the veneer, the very stubborn veneer, and placed the steaming iron on top. I pressed the shot of steam button a few times waited about 10 seconds and lifted the iron and cloth!
While it was still warm, I used a putty knife slipping it underneath the veneer and lifted it off.
As you can see, it lifted off easily with my putty knife! In fact is wasn’t difficult at all.
I repeated the process all along the edges until all the stubborn veneer was gone.
Once I removed the veneer off, all that was left was a film of glue that I continued to steam and work on. I used more steam and eventually a sander to remove as much as possible. Now all that’s left is the stain where the glue was!
Now that the work is done, I can get busy with the creative part… my new paint project! Got veneer issues??? Let me know how this works for you……
