modernising veneer

[siska]

I have jarrah veneer office furniture and want to find out if I can bleach out the colour and restain to a lighter beech effect. What products are recommended or any other tricks?

[ubeaut]

G'day Siska

I would be a bit dubious about bleaching veneer as it would first require the complete removal of all finish from the surface of the timber before an even bleaching effect could be achieved. This in turn will make the veneer very thin and as the bleaches are water based will more than likely damage the glue that is holding the veneer to the core-stock.

Maybe Shane or someone else can offer a solution that would work, but I would recommend against it.

Cheers - Neil

[Shane Watson]

Siska,

Well, really I have to agree with Neil. And from my understanding that if the Jarrah veneer is on office furniture then it would be quite thin to start with, more so than if it was say 100+yrs old. As a general rule of thumb, the older the veneer - the thicker it is. So like Neil said, it really is too thin to try bleaching... but... thats not to say it wouldn't work ( I wouldn't try it though ) so if you decide to give it a go, I would strongly suggest testing on an unseen portion of veneer.

Heres two alternatives I have thought of. Maybe not to your liking though

- consider refinishing the Jarrah veneer with a white wash. This will certainly give the veneer a new look and quite modern at that. (Oh and it dosn't have to be white, you can have it tinted to any colour you can imagine)

- Complete reveneer. Yep, rip off all the Jarrah and then reveneer with Beech. This is the only way to get the true finish you want. Bit extreme though if the current veneer is in good condition!

Another thought I had was, are you sure it is Jarrah veneer? I ask that because a lot of office furniture is veneered in light coloured timbers then stained to be darker. If this is the case you may be able to lightly sand through the stain to revel the natural veneer colour. I have done this many times with success, but you HAVE to be careful with the sanding. Cause once you've gone to far, then theres no going back.

Personally I would try and sell it for what I could, then buy new office furniture if I was desperate to change its colour. But thats my opinon.

Cheers!



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Shane Watson..

Combine Love & Skill & You Can Expect A Masterpiece!