This has been a question that has been asked many times by home owners.

In fact, I was even approached many times by home owners who told me that they want to refurbish their solid wood furniture by changing the dimensions, repainting etc.

A clearer picture of a teak wood timber, you can see that at the end, it has the ring of the wood.

It happens many times, that woodworkers who have just started out with lesser experience in dealing with solid wood and plywood laminate often found themselves stepping into the “landmine” when they realised that the “solid wood” furniture is plywood after cutting.

On the other hand, we could not push the blame to the homeowners, as wood grain pattern laminate resembles real wood and they have the perception that the laminate surface is the actual surface of the furniture.

This is a clearer closed up on how to identify plywood laminate, the black joined lines.

So now, this is another question to ask, how do this laminate go onto plywood surface and what exactly is laminate? Below are some short videos to show the process of gluing laminate sheet on plywood.

This is the process of applying contact adhesive on laminate, laminate is basically “ composite material made by fusing multiple layers of materials, typically paper and plastic, together under heat and pressure.” (Cited from Google, 2025).

Smooth and steady way of applying contact adhesive on plywood surface.

The process of boding two adhesive points together.

With the advancement of technology, industry players are able to fabricate laminate with pattern that resemble wood grain and sometimes, when placed side by side together with a solid wood timber, the laminated wood grain might even be more striking that the latter!

That’s all for today folks. If you’re interested, I’d love to share more about my experiences learning to navigate the balance between expectations and reality.

Cheers,

CP