Help with refinishing..

Greg Cook

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Location
Tokiwadai, Japan
I have a chance to buy an armoire and chest for a bargain price, but there is some damage I need to repair to make them really nice.

Here are the two pieces






Here's the damage on the cabinet top. Appears that a wet invoice/paper was left on, and pulled off the finish when removed.




I figured I will have to sand off the entire top of the cabinet, but is there a way to match the rest of the piece so it doesn't look half restored?

Here's the maring on the door of the armoire..



Any and all advice would be appreciated.
 
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Greg, I'm not certain, but it looks suspiciously like MDF or some other composite board underneath the wood grain. If that's the case, it'll be tough to match the rest of the cabinet, although I guess you could scrape/sand it smooth and put a veneer on it. (Not sure how you'd deal with the edges, though.) It's hard to tell from the pics, but if I were in your shoes, I'd try to confirm the furniture is real wood if I really wanted to refinish it.

On the other hand, if you need bedroom furniture, and the price is right, these pieces might still be useful to you. You could find other ways to hide the scratches, ranging from dresser cloths to careful work with a few shades of Sharpie pens. Heck, I've been using a hand-me-down particle board and vinyl woodgrain dresser and hightstand for about 20 years, and they still do what I need them to do. Someday, I'd like to build a nice bedroom set to replace it, but until then, my current set does the job. ;)
 
greg, i`ve matched that splatter finish before and it`s a bugger! my suggestion if you choose to invest the time and money in the piece is to start with a new piece for the top.....veneered mdf isn`t expensive but you`ll go through lots of stain/dye/sealer trying to match the existing finish...for the splatter effect i ended up using oil based paint thick sprayed at low pressure without the air nozzle on my gun.....it`s hard to get round drops instead of oblong ones so once you`ve got the color correct practice technique on scrap........tod
 
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