Fix Furniture Flaws!
If you have kids, cats, dogs, or clumsy friends, even brand-new furniture can suffer slight damage from toys, claws, sweating beverage glasses and an occasional accident by the well-meaning people and pets in your home! We’ve collected the top fixes for furniture flaws to help you erase rings, scratches and dents and repair wear and tear to keep your favorite finds front and center in your home.
Wood Furniture Fixes
Sometimes you can cover up a furniture scratch by “coloring” in the scratch with a wax crayon that matches the color of the finish on your furniture. You can buy these online or pick them up at the Home Depot on West Allen Street in Castle Rock. Once you’ve colored the spot, rub it with your finger to blend the crayon with the finish.
You can also hide scratches with an oil-based craft or artist’s paint, using a color that’s darker than the finish on the furniture – as long as it doesn’t have a polyurethane finish. Rub a little paint into the scratch, and the scratch will appear to blend in with the finish.
Tea, Coffee or Iodine
For a natural way to fix scratched furniture, steeping a black tea bag for a few minutes in a two-to-three tablespoons of water will produce a stain the approximate color of your wood – just beware that the longer you steep the darker your “stain.” Dab the tea onto the scratches with a cotton swab or cotton ball, then quickly wipe away the excess with a paper towel to prevent the wood around the scratches from being stained. If the wood is a medium-dark color, you may need to apply the tea more than once, according to WikiHow.
If your wood furniture has a darker hue, apply wet coffee grounds and allow to sit for an hour, or use instant coffee to cover the scratch. Make a thick paste of the coffee granules and water, then rub the paste into the scratch.
Sometimes the best first aid for a scratch in dark wood is iodine. Use a cotton swab to apply the iodine to the scratch and a paper towel to wipe away the excess.
Iron Out the Dents
This fix comes with a warning — but we found it as a remedy for furniture flaws on multiple sites including Overstock.com and Apartment Therapy. To fix dents in your wood furniture and floors the only two things you need are a wet cloth and your iron – that’s really all there is to it. You apply a wet cloth to the dent and then put your hot iron on top of it. Since most wood has a finish on it you MUST BE CAREFUL to test a hidden area first so you’re not turning the finish white from the steam.
Refinishing the Surface
For fixing or repairing deeper scratches, especially if the piece of furniture is coated with polyurethane, you’ll probably want to refinish the entire surface. Use 320-grit sandpaper to remove the existing finish and then 400-grit to smooth out he scratch. After you wipe the surface with a cloth soaked in mineral oil to remove all the sand dust, apply new stain using a paintbrush or paint pad. Afterwards coat the service with polyurethane, also with a brush or pad and let dry.
Removing Water Stains
Inevitably during the summer someone will forget to use a coaster on end tables, coffee tables or night stands. Reader’s Digest recommends attaching water stains with one of these fast fixes for great results. A paste of 1 tablespoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon water rubbed into the stain in a circular motion can make the stain disappear, as can applying petroleum jelly and letting it sit overnight. You can also try rubbing toothpaste into the stain (non-gel) and wiping with a soft cloth or applying equal parts vinegar and olive oil.
Fall in Crystal Valley
Once the weather changes, you’ll be looking for projects to do indoors and furniture hacks are only the beginning! If you’re new to the area visit the amazing master-planned community of Crystal Valley, with nine models to tour from D.R. Horton, Kauffman Homes and Richmond American Homes. The new construction designs are priced from the $300s and are available in ranch and two-story designs.
