Lane Cedar Hope Chest

Hi everyone! I am trying to decide to refinish vs repair this chest. One thought would be to take off the veneer down to the cedar and seal it. Is this possible to do with the lid as well? When removing the veneer, is it cedar underneath? Or a different type of wood?

Thanks in advance!

 

This tutorial might give you some ideas. https://werefinish.net/furniture-re...ir-project-tutorials/cedar-chest-refinishing/

Are you doing this so you will be keeping it or selling it? Not many people are interested in purchasing cedar chests, so keep that in mind if you are thinking about the work & expense you'll go thru to try & make a profit.

 

If it were mine, I'd just try to touch up the damaged areas as best I could with a matching stain. It looks like the damaged areas are pretty small and wouldn't be hard to make much less noticeable. As wiscbirddog says, these chests are not very valuable and stripping all the veneer off and refinishing is a lot of work with uncertain results. I see similar "waterfall" style chests at thrift stores regularly in Texas for under $100.

 

Not cedar underneath the veneer. Would just touch up or even paint to taste.

 

I did a double-take as I have nearly the same chest in my basement and didn't even remember it was Lane (if I ever knew) and turns out it is.

 

Too bad but a lot of them do reside in basements 'cause there isn't a market for them.

Mine (my mother's) is in the bedroom, only because it wasn't worth the effort to try & get it to the basement.

 

Thanks for the info. I am wanting to keep it.

 

Thank you!

 

Thank you everyone for your input.
I appreciate your responses. I will plan on just repairing it

 

That's an interesting page... shows the work involved, for sure.

 

I know this is an old post but on the contrary to the chest not being cedar underneath. I took the time to remove the veneer from the entire lane chest that I saved from a dumpster. I found the lower chest was indeed cedar under the multiple layers of veneer. However the lid is not. Although equally beautiful I should have used a cedar stain on it and possibly wouldn't even tell the difference.