How to spot a solid-wood piece under a bad paint job

A tired coat of paint hides more good furniture than it ruins. The trick is reading the bones before the finish.

Weight and joinery tell the truth

Solid timber has heft and grain that runs through an edge, not just across a surface. Look at the corners: dovetails and mortise-and-tenon joints mean someone built it to last, whatever colour it wears now.

What paint can't fake

Turn a drawer over. Machine-cut, uniform boards suggest later mass production; hand-cut irregularity suggests age and care. The underside is where a piece stops pretending.

• Check for veneer lifting at the edges.
• Smell for damp — the one problem paint won't cure.
• Wobble it: a rack in the frame is a repair, not a dealbreaker.

Once you've found the piece, the next question is how far to take the restoration.