How to Lay New Veneer

by Lauren Witheridge

Find out how to lay a large piece of veneer onto the top of a dining room buffet.

Meet Martha, when she was brought home.

Rememeber this poor gal?

Well, her and I have had many a conversations, usually over a glass of wine, with a paint brush in my hand. However, last night instead of a paintbrush I met Martha with a can of rubber cement. She was nervous. But we’ve become good friends and just like you apprehensively trust your roommate in college to trim your bangs she trusted me. Luckily, this didn’t end up in with some hilarious stories and haunting Facebook posts. Instead, we wanted to take you through it so that should the need arrive you too could confidently give a beloved piece of furniture a face lift.

First, the prelude: How to strip the old veneer; which you can find on my page!

I got my roll of veneer at a great price from a local lumber yard.

Measure out your veneer.

Measure out your veneer. Measure twice, cut once. Or in my case…I think I measured at least 6 times!

To cut the veneer, use a box cutter with a fresh blade. The trick to a clean cut is to score it SEVERAL times and eventually it will cut through the veneer. If you try to cut all the way through it on ONE swipe it will crack and chip the veneer!

Then I cut down a bunch of yard sticks. The buffet measured 19″ deep, so I cut the yardsticks to 20″. You want to have enough yard sticks to set across the piece so that when you set the veneer on top of them it won’t dip down to touch the buffet.