This mahogany sideboard had numerous restoration challenges including; a badly cracked top, a broken leg, and incorrect style replacement door locks (with no keys). In addition there were areas of missing veneer and decorative inlay banding, as well as thick, poorly applied coats of varnish.
First the (up to half inch wide) cracks on the top were glued together with hand shaped strips of solid wood. Then the top surface was scraped and sanded flat. During the finishing phase, these and some of the other repairs were touched up using earth toned pigments mixed with shellac. 
Another part of this project involved replacing the modern cabinet door locks with traditional cabinet locks and keyhole escutcheons. In addition to the new locks being fit in the door backs, large areas of solid mahogany had to be inlaid over the over sized (previous) keyhole. Then new banding was inlaid, before cutting out the final key hole and insetting the escutcheon. The hardware in this project was purchased from Horton Brasses Inc., an excellent resource for antique style hardware.
After completion of all the repairs both structural and cosmetic, the finishing phase is the next step. In this project refinishing of some of the surfaces was needed, while other areas were cleaned and top coated. The end result is to blend together repairs and the overall natural color of the piece using a hand applied shellac finish.
