Recently a friend asked me to undertake some repairs to two pieces of furniture that were made by a furniture company here in Maine. I use these examples as instances of furniture dishonesty that went beyond cosmetics to seriously affect the structural quality.

In the top picture, there is a panel from a table that was supposed to be solid cherry. When I removed it, as you can see, I found that it was a thin cherry veneer over cardboard-like particle board.

The bottom picture shows a table leg with false pegs that might appear to peg a mortise and tenon joint. The joint faliled because it was, in reality, two dowels and a screw. The round pegs on the surface had no function at all except to mislead.