Replacing the laminate on an old Lea bedroom set

By Jeanne Huber,

Q: We purchased a Lea modular bedroom set in the late 1970s. The cases and drawers are wood, but the tops and sides are particleboard with a thin, plastic veneer. Despite its age and 11 moves, the furniture is still in good condition. However, very early on, the veneer on some of the tops bubbled up and cracked where water glasses were placed overnight or the veneer was damaged during a move. Over the years, it has gotten worse. We really want to keep the set. I asked kitchen-cabinet refacers if they could refinish the tops with new plastic laminate that blends with the sides and drawer fronts, even if it doesn’t exactly match. But they said they only do kitchens. We called a furniture-repair person who said he doesn’t re-veneer. Do we have any options?

Arlington, Va.

A: Given that you want to refinish flat surfaces, installing new plastic laminate should be possible.

You might not even have to resort to getting a pattern that “blends” rather than matches. Formica (formica.com) and Wilsonart (wilsonart.com), two leading laminate manufacturers, each offer a custom-design option. You could take a high-resolution photograph of an undamaged area, and the company would make laminate that matches. After all, high-pressure laminate, the generic term for a product that’s often called by one trade name, Formica, gets its look from a printed photograph that’s topped by durable, clear plastic. Manufacturers use heat and pressure to bond and consolidate these layers and base layers of resin-impregnated kraft paper. The resulting laminate is very durable and should never bubble up just because someone left a wet glass on it overnight.

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Formica’s custom line is called Envision; Wilsonart’s is Wilsonart By You. Each company offers multiple widths and lengths, with the smallest option being three feet wide by eight feet long. After you send a picture that meets the technical requirements, which are listed on the company’s website, the company will check that it’s the right format and resolution, and it will then make a sample and send it to you for your approval before manufacturing your order. You can order a single sheet. The price tends to be $11 to $13 a square foot, but the specifics are set by local distributors. Each company requires people to place orders through a distributor and offers a “find a distributor” service on its website.

That leaves the question of how to get the laminate cut to size and installed on your pieces. In a follow-up email, you mentioned that you had found someone who would do the work but had warned that the process was messy and, because of the fumes, had to be done outdoors. You said this was a problem, given you live in a condo. There are two ways around this issue: Find someone who has a shop and would take the furniture there for its transformation, or specify that the person needs to avoid using the usual solvent-based contact cement and instead use a low-odor contact cement.

Yasser Haridi, owner of Antiques & Furniture Restoration in Sterling (703-437-7446; refinishing.org), typically focuses on repairing fine furniture. But he said he could help you by teaming up with a nearby craftsman who has experience installing laminate on kitchen cabinets, Justin Lawrence, owner of Custom Stroke & Remodeling (703-996-6131; jstnlawrence@yahoo.com). Lawrence said he has no experience with furniture but would be happy to help Haridi with the laminate aspects. In both of their cases, they do the work at their shops. Lawrence said that if you do go with someone who wants to do the work on a deck at your condo, water-based contact cement should work fine as long as you’re recovering a flat surface; he has seen problems with these adhesives when the laminate needs to bond to a curved surface.

Regardless of who does the work, one challenge will be getting a smooth surface as a base for the new surface material. Removing old plastic laminate generally involves heating the surface with a heat gun until the plastic and underlying adhesive soften enough so a putty knife can be slipped under an edge. This loose edge is then extended by repeatedly prying and applying heat until the rest of the piece lifts free. But if the plastic surface on your furniture bubbled up from water, it’s anyone’s guess what the plastic might be. If heating it releases noxious fumes, it might be better to leave it in place and cover the top with a ¼ -inch-thick layer of particleboard as a base for the new laminate; this would create the need for edge banding of some kind around the perimeter. Without seeing an overall picture of your pieces, it’s impossible to say whether that would work.

Another option would be to skip the idea of using plastic laminate and instead install new wood veneer plus a durable clear coating, such as lacquer. Haridi does that kind of work all the time. He can also stain wood veneer to match the rest of the wood.

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