It’s not every day a piece of Lane Furniture walks into my shop. When that day dawns, I seize it! Because the aesthetics, particularly of these nearly 100 year old cedar “hope” chests, haven’t been duplicated since.

Any good furniture restoration begins with a vision. Is the ultimate goal authentic, time-period-specific restoration? Is the goal just beauty? Functionality?

For this 1940s Lane Furniture cedar chest (pictured below), the owner wanted, simply put, the piece to look better. It had been her mother’s chest, and the owner wished to keep it around the home for another generation or more.

You can see it in the photo, just barely, but the bottom piece of trip along the front facade was missing. The ribbed section seen on the right side was missing from the left. So, we opted to remove all of the ribbed sections and flatten out the front.

Next, I had to remove the candle wax (it’s green, visible in bottom-left of photo) on the walnut veneer. Using a Wagner heat gun, I melted back the wax and removed the residue with Goo Gone. The rest of the veneer wrapping the middle of the piece was virtually flawless. I wiped on two passes of Oz Polish and called the veneer restoration complete.

For the bottom trim area, I popped off the remaining ribbed sections, then sanded the old finish off with my Festool Sander. The underlying orangish tone of the cedar added a rugged element to the piece, so I decided to tone the entire bottom panel with Mohawk’s Ultra Classic Toner Cherry and with a touch of Mohawk’s Ultra Classic Medium-Brown Walnut Toner.

For the walnut veneer top, I sanded away the scratches and watermarks, then toned it with Mohawk’s Ultra Classic Medium Brown Walnut Toner. I finished the whole piece with Mohawk’s Pre-Catalyzed Satin Lacquer.

Want to see the whole furniture makeover transformation? Check out the full how-to story on our YouTube channel, here:

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Looking for my full workshop list of supplies and equipment? Here it is.