Replacing Island Kitchen Wall End Pieces of Maple Wood Veneer

I recently a had a customer who hired me to replace (fix) the wall end cap pieces of wood that were stained to match the maple kitchen cabinetry. The cupboards were sixteen years old and the thin veneer had stayed attached very well for a long time. The maple pieces had been glued on with contact glue and through the course of time they started peeling off. It was time to get rid of the old and make new pieces because these had sustained minimal damage through the years.

Instead of replacing them with other pieces of veneer, she (the customer) decided that a piece of quarter inch thick solid maple would be more desirable as a replacement. Taking the pieces of maple veneer to the hardwood supplier, I ordered two new end caps. I left the old wood pieces with the company so that they could make perfect matches to the original sizes. this by far would be the most difficult part of the project because walls are never perfectly straight.


Once the new pieces of wood were finished, I then took them to a local furniture refinishing company to have them finished to match the old color. Because the old pieces of wood had been finished so long ago it was not possible to purchase any type of cabinet finishing stain and clear-coat, over the counter, to match.

Once they were stained and clear coated perfectly to match the old maple wood veneer, I installed the new pieces by applying contact glue.

The most difficult part of replacing the veneer was getting the size and color to be exactly the same on either end of the wall. When I finished installing the end-caps, the Maple wood was a perfect match to the surrounding kitchen cabinets. This was not a quick fix project. It actually took about two weeks to complete every thing.