Stick on real wood veneer.

Surely science has developed better glues than traditional ones made from what was left over from an animal kill? ;-)

There used to be contact adhesives that allowed some movement to position things.

Depends how you use them

... either coat both surfaces, wait for it to go touch dry, carefully position surfaces (with dowels/waxed-paper/etc keeping them apart until sure) then gradually bring the surfaces together while smoothing out.

... or coat one surface and immediately press to the other surface without letting it go off, then it has some give for positioning, but you need to hold it in place while it dries, which to me negates the point of a contact adhesive.

Thats how I have done my occasional bits of veneering A thin even coat of glue on both sides with no lumps or ridges Touch dry before assembly

is a quick demo

however he does not address veneering the edges if you need to do the edges you might consider doing them first to get some practice in before tackling the big piece

Correct! Thixotropic contact adhesive, to be precise.

I found it very useful when glueing large Formica sheets to a kitchen worktop I'd built about 40 years ago and it's still there (or at least it was when we finally moved out a few months ago!)

It is still available from several manufacturers but the most common one seems to be Evostik TX528 Thixotropic adhesive.

Boiled dead bits is still the best glue for some jobs. PVA is a hot melt glue, don't know whether the melt temp is suitable for this job - easy enough to try. PVA isn't good at gap filling though.

NT

Of course. ;-)

Ordinary Evostik seems to have fallen foul of the H&S brigade and doesn't work as well as once - is the Thixotropic OK?

The one I remember is Dunlop Thixofix.

Yes, but they require a heated hydraulic press...

You may be able to get away with this; someone told me they had got this to work (possibly as an on-site bodge): "Use PVA glue, a thin even layer on the wood. Let dry. Iron on untreated wood veneer."

Thomas Prufer