Cedar Chest

I bought this cedar chest for $40 off Craiglist. It was beat up, but for the price, I couldn't pass it up. 

The trim that wrapped around the entire piece was damaged, but instead of re-staining the original, I decided to start fresh. First, I removed the old trim

Also, the veneer was significatly damaged on the left side.

 So I started scraping off the old veneer panel using a putty knife  (I know there are better tools, but I use what is handy) :)

Then I removed the uphostered top (not original to the piece) to discover what kind of damage was underneath. It's ugly, but superficial. I still plan to reupholster the top, because I like the idea of using it for a bench as well

That concludes the tear down part of the project. In my next post, I'll show you how I made it beautiful again :)