How To Repair Wood Furniture Chips

It's easier than you retrieve to fix damaged furniture! Today we're sharing how to fix chipped wood furniture , specifically, how to repair veneer before painting. Simply here's a little secret, this fox works for SO MANY piece of furniture repairs.

Discover more than tutorials for repairing old article of furniture !

A lot of antiquarian furniture was fabricated with real forest that had blemishes on information technology. Simply it was made cute with a thin layer of expensive, pretty wood. That thin layer of forest is called veneer.

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The veneer was glued onto the less pretty wood to make the less pretty wood expect like it was made of expensive forest.

This practice continues today with manufactured furniture, but today the wood under the veneer is often a manufactured (low quality) woods.

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Side Note: Wood veneer is dissimilar than laminate.

You can tell the difference between laminate and wood veneer by the sheen, texture and how they look. Laminate is very slick, shiny and has no natural wood grain (considering information technology'due south basically plastic that has been made to look like forest!) Woods veneer has texture, and it isn't equally slick or shiny as laminate is.

(Click here to run into what yous must do earlier you paint laminate furniture.)

Over time the wood veneer can become water harm, or the glue holding the veneer to the wood can become brittle, creating the veneer to be loose.

When the veneer is loose, information technology starts to lift abroad from the forest, making it easy for the veneer to chip and break.

Hither is a dresser that started to chip at the lesser. The veneer lifted and was easily cleaved off from the rest of veneer.

how to repair wood veneer for painted furniture

I wanted to paint the dresser, only I didn't want to exit the damage visible. This is such a mutual problem when painting or refinishing old furniture.

But the fix is really pretty simple!

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Supplies:

Bondo
Spreader
Sandpaper
Optional: Pulverisation Sander / Disc Sandpaper
Optional: Utility Knife
Optional: Forest Filler

How to Gear up Chipped Wood Furniture

Glue down or remove all of the loose veneer.
Mix upwardly Bondo and Speedily spread information technology over the missing veneer.
Let the Bondo dry out for at least 30 minutes.
Sand the Bondo down polish.
Apply a 2nd coat of Bondo or fill in small imperfections with wood filler.
Go ready for paint or refinishing.

What Is Bondo?

Bondo is well known in the auto repair industry (only information technology's become very popular to use on wood!) Information technology'due south a ii-part product that consists of the base and the hardener. In one case mixed it dries very difficult in less than an hr.

Basically it'due south perfect for piece of furniture and home repairs. Bondo has actually come out with a wood filler version and a multi-purpose version because of how popular it has become! (Though I still like to stick with the good ole pink auto version of Bondo.)

How to use Bondo for Forest Repair

How to Mix Bondo

Simply mix a golf ball size of the base of operations with most an inch long corporeality of hardener.

Simply mix it in small amounts or as much equally you demand though. Nigh 5 minutes afterward information technology's mixed, it becomes too hard to work with. And after almost 30 minutes the Bondo is difficult.

How Long Does it Take for Bondo to Dry?

It depends on the weather and how much hardener you mixed into the base, but it should be hardening enough that you tin can't spread it subsequently v minutes.

The back of the can says that it cures in 20 -xxx minutes.

After it has cured, y'all can sand it downwards.

How to Sand Bondo

If you tin can, sand the Bondo down with a power sander and 220 dust sandpaper. The power sander works the very best on a flat surface like the side of this dresser.

This is the orbital sander and my favorite, the best, near long-lasting sandpaper that I apply.

If you are stuck sanding Bondo past hand, start with more than fibroid dust sandpaper like 100 dust or 120 dust to remove the well-nigh excess quickly. Then work your fashion upwards to 220 dust sandpaper to become a really nice smooth repair.

For sanding by manus, this is my absolute favorite sandpaper to use. I find that other sandpaper tears and loses information technology's dust way too fast.

How to Sand Bondo Faster

If you're repairing wood with details that are hard to get into, or areas where a power sander can't go, I accept a lilliputian play tricks that saves so much time!

Virtually 5 minutes subsequently you have put the Bondo onto wood, utilize a utility knife to shave off the excess and shape the Bondo.

Once the Bondo is dry and hard (most 30 minutes later) you can sand the rest of the Bondo down then it's shine and seamless.

All-time Sandpaper for Bondo

This sandpaper isn't simply for Bondo. These are my favorite sandpaper sheets to use, no matter the projection. They are slap-up for hand sanding, or if y'all have a sander that uses sheets of sandpaper.

The grit lasts much longer than other sandpaper, and it doesn't tear easily like others do.

For my ability sander, these are the sanding discs that I recommend. This brand is the best!

Do I need to Utilize a Second Coat of Bondo?

If in that location aren't whatever imperfections, then yous are just fine to motility onto the next step.

Merely a lot of times the Bondo has air bubbling or pocket-size areas that demand to exist filled in to make the damage completely disappear.

You can either spread another sparse coat of Bondo on, or yous can put woods filler in those imperfections.

In one case the Bondo or wood filler is dry, merely sand it down smoothen again.

How to pigment Bondo?

You tin paint correct over Bondo if you would like. Merely to combat bleedthrough or uneven coverage of pigment, it's best to prime number the furniture in some way before painting.

I personally love to apply clear shellac in the spray tin can to combat bleed through, and seal the Bondo. I beloved to utilize shellac considering information technology'south clear and makes it easy to lightly distress the paint for a farmhouse look.

If yous don't desire a farmhouse look, a white primer like BIN Shellac is perfect to go your piece of furniture and Bondo repair set up for paint.

Annotation: If you are painting your furniture with powdered milk paint, I like to paint a glaze of water-based poly over the Bondo. Shellac can make the powdered milk paint crepitation, revealing the pink Bondo underneath, so h2o-based poly is the best option!

**After**
Click here to see the full dresser makeover – The Emerald Dark-green Painted Dresser!

Tin can you Stain Bondo?

Sadly, Bondo doesn't accept stain like wood does. Plus if y'all use the autobody kind (the pink stuff), information technology's going to be even harder to make the Bondo look similar wood.

But, Bondo has a wood filler version of Bondo that would be easier to stain. Information technology still won't have stain similar wood does (no woods filler will stain similar wood does though!).

Your best bet to stain Bondo is to use the Wood Filler Version and and so stain it by painting on layers of Gel Stain like this video shows.

Click here to learn How to Stain Bondo Forest Filler and here to acquire how to stain article of furniture darker with gel stain!

This youtube video from Family unit Handyman uses some other production that I really dearest called Kwikwood. It's another great option to repair the chips in wood veneer.

Kwikwood is a thicker, clay like, wood filler that tin be shaped easily. It also dries rapidly (most an hr) and dries hard.

It'southward not as easy to make full in a large area of missing veneer with Kwikwood though, then I like to stick to Bondo for repairs like this.

Optional – Remove the Veneer

If your veneer is loose or pretty damaged, you might want to remove all of it instead of filling in the modding veneer. Here is our video and tutorial on the insanely easy way to remove veneer.

You've got this!!

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