dyrlund restoration

i bought a fancy table*! the tradeoff was that the top had been (poorly) veneered at some point, so i wanted to find a solution for that.

the sellers (who were very nice and delivered to my house / showed me how to assemble) suggested i just flip the top and use the bottom side as the new table top.

i thought about stripping the aftermarket veneer off but getting a good quality veneering on a surface this big is something i don't want to try for the first time on such a nice piece of furniture. so i did as they suggested.

this meant i just needed to flip the table top and then drill holes through so that i could screw the brackets in on the reverse side. i ended up using my pin vice because i was impatient and it worked.

after that there were the existing screw holes and one central hole on the (formerly) bottom side of the table top so i wanted to fill them. i tried some leftover mother-of-pearl i had lying around but that looked bad so instead i got some dowels off of amazon and carved them down until they fit snug. then i carved them (carefully) flush with the table top and i was done!

(did I say carefully? i put several scrapes in my thumbs. safety should be first if you try this at home)

*it is called a dyrlund lotus table i think. most of the ones online are much more expensive than mine was