Adam King Studio Fine Furniture & Antique Restoration

This is the first of many Restoration projects that will be featured here at Adam King Studio. This terrific piece is a blanket chest with Walnut Veneer, hand carved egg and dart molding, and a Bird's Eye maple medallion gracing the exterior. The interior is Aromatic Red Cedar.

It came to the Studio with extensive damage to the top veneer as well as the veneer on the front of the case. There was also damage to the finish which, at some point, had been stripped and reapplied.

The most time consuming stage of the restoration was the veneer repair. What do you do when large irregular patches are missing from a field of veneer? Well, after selecting veneer that matches the overall grain pattern, the best solution to hide the presence of patches is to cut areas in an arch shape. As you can see in the photo, each section of missing veneer was cut into the shape of an arch. Then corresponding patches were cut from the veneer to match each section.

After gluing and clamping the patches overnight, each one was planed and scraped flush with the surface. This was done everywhere that veneer was missing or badly damaged. The result is a seamless patch that will dissappear after finishing.

Next time I will share the the process of color matching and reviving the finish of the exterior of the blanket chest. Also, I'll reveal one of my favorite finishing secrets for making your own stain. You don't want to miss it.