My client had a bedroom set since she was a kid. It had a kind of cool design to it but it was made of particle board with a nice veneer on the outside. The was take residue on the wood from several moves and we decided to paint it. 

But as I was working on the piece I realized that it actually looked good when it was refinished. I used some furniture refinisher that didn’t strip the finish down to bare wood but basically melted it to give a smooth finish. And it got rid of the tape residue. 

I wiped on several coats of high gloss polyurethane and it ended up looking very pretty. I sent pictures to the client and she agreed that it would be better to refinish rather than repaint. 

I had to do a bunch of repairs with glue, screws, and nails and was very sturdy by the time I was done. 

I also repaired the matching bedframe that went with the cabinet, so they didn’t have to buy a new bedframe. That also took a lot of glue and screws to make it sturdy.