Even $200 seems high for this set -- waterfall items are not very desirable and the table top is veneer. Those chairs don't look very comfortable, either, even if you'd beef up the seat padding when you recovered them. Sorry! I think you'd be better off to keep looking!

If the tabletop is veneer it won't refinish well. FWIW I've refinished a couple of tables and table tops are nearly impossible to get a great finish. It would a very time-intensive project IMHO and not a very rewarding one. After looking at the picture I can guarantee you NOT be able to refinish this simply with good results. PASS

As much as I love waterfall furniture I'd never pay this much for this set, but then I can be cheap when it comes to something I'm going to have to put a lot of work in to get up to par to use in our home. Though they were made better than mid-priced items of today they are fifty to sixty years old and I doubt the chairs are as sturdy as they once were. If you really love it make arrangements to go see it. Gently test every piece (wiggle test) and make sure all joints are solid. Also since these pieces are all veneer you'll want to look carefully from every angle. Don't feel embarrassed about doing this either. If the seller really wants rid of their goods they won't mind as long as you are gentle. Make sure it is viewed on solid/level ground so you know it's not wobbly. Open and close all doors and drawers checking for any damage as you do so.
If after all this you feel you're up to taking on the task of sanding and painting, or since your painting...filling in any chipped veneer, then hand over the $200.00. If you truly don't think it's worth that much then kindly say so "It's a beautiful set, but I know I can't convince my hubby to spend this much on when it has (fill in the defects)" asking that they keep your name and number if they do decide to take less for it "I do really like it though so would you mind keeping me in mind in the chance it doesn't sell in your time frame?".

I LOVE modern decor. This set would need just a light sanding, then paint!!! I think it's a GREAT idea. I agree that in my area this set would be cheaper, but buying new is outrageous.....so then....this is a deal!

Thanks, everybody. I think I'll bypass this set and look for another one to refinish based on your advice.

I'm curious, though, how could you tell from the pictures that the wood was veneer? It'd be useful to know how to distinguish that based on a photo, as it saves time...I'd prefer to finish something that's not veneer.

I have to tell you even solid wood is problematic. I refinished a solid oak table and completely sanded down the top. It was almost impossible to get a great finish. I posted my question here about what I was doing wrong. Many posters answered me that table tops are very difficult to do to get a nice smooth finish so I knew it wasn't just me.

Well, much waterfall stuff was veneered, so I kind of knew by looking at the style of the table. The biggest clue is that the top is divided into four pieces and the veneer is done in the decorative way to make the dark/light diamond pattern. Since a lot of the waterfall stuff was made in the 20's (and 30's?) it has kind of a "thin" feel to it and it's not the sturdiest stuff. I'm not bagging on your taste, in fact, I'm sitting about 8 feet away from a lovely waterfall china cabinet that belonged to my grandparents, and it's very dear to me.

There are some very experienced furniture people here that could provide a lot more info....Sombreuil Mongrel, Lindac, and Palimpsest are some names that come to mind. I'd guess that the easiest way to see if a table is veneered is to open the top (where the leaves fit in) and look at the sides of the table-top boards to see if there's a thin layer of veneer. Good luck in your search!

Hi Grad Girl 1.

The problem with those pieces, and in general, with most pieces in the particular late-193Os style that's come to be known a 'waterfall', is not that they're veneer per se, but that they're often made of crummy veneer, applied--with glues that haven't held up well--to a crummy framework. Some styles are more prone to shoddy construction than other styles, and this particular style is one of the ones to watch out for. But veneer itself is not bad. High-quality veneered pieces can take refinishing without much problem, if you're careful. I know, because I've had a ton of pieces like that.

Here's the thing about veneer: it started out as a way to stretch a given quanity of wood. Back in, say, 1820, a handsome piece of imported mahogany about the size of a fence post could be used as a vertical stile on an American Empire dresser, or as a table leg, or as the carved top crest of a sofa or to make a few rungs on a Grecian style chair. But by cutting that four-inch-thick piece of wood into thin slices only an eighth or a sixteenth of an inch thick, it could provide enough beautiful veneer to cover a more common, less expensive wood--like pine or poplar or oak, depending on where in the country the piece was made--and make an Empire secretary eight feet high, with perfectly matched drawer fronts with lustrous graining. Some of the greatest pieces of furniture ever made are veneered.

But veneering is also a cheap way top cover up particle board with a slice of wood so thin you could read through it, which is the way a lot of furniture is made today. The only thing feeping that paper-this "wood" down is a thin layer of polyurethans. That is, plastic. On a piece like that, a gentle sanding can go right through the veneer & expose--well, whatever is under there. One popular manufacturer, having abandoned heavy, expensive-to-ship particle board-based-veneered shelving, is now offering shelves whose core is corrugated cardboard. Sure, it looks nice on the display floor, it's easy to carry out of the store & it's amazingly inexpensive, but nobody will be asking how to refinish that stuff in sixty years because it will have disintegrated long before that. Then again, a lot of people don't really care about that stuff, they just want something cheap. Anyway, somewhere in between the extremes of museum-worthy antique veneered pieces & trendy, here-today-gone-tomorrow pieces, there's plenty of older-but-decent-quality veneered furniture available for not much money, and some of it has your name written all over it. Your job is to find it. But how?

The best way to get a fast education in old furniture is to go to a large antique furniture flea market--not to buy, but just to look. There, in one place, in one day, you'll see every style, high & low, every kind of construction, good & bad, solid wood & veneered, and it won't take you long to be able to tell what's what, so that, later, when you have only a photo on Craigslist to go by, you'll already have a pretty good idea of what it's like in real life. Then you'll be better able to gauge prices, not only based on what you can afford, but on what something's actually worth. Have fun on your search.

Regards,
Magnaverde.