4 Common Furniture Blemishes And How To Fix Them

Wooden furniture can be some of the most pleasant to have in your home - the material gives a truly rustic feel to any room. Imagine a lounge filled with antique wooden chairs, or an oak kitchen table that gives off a great country feeling. Although wood can be a very attractive material, it can become damaged fairly easily and the blemishes show up very clearly. As such, you'll want to tackle any of these problems as soon as they become apparent in order to salvage your furniture. Below are some of the most common problems and how you can fix them yourself. 

Removing Scratches

One of the most annoying things about wooden furniture is its inherent ability to scratch easily. Wearing a watch? Scratch hazard. Place a mug on the armrest? Scratch hazard. A cat who likes to attack anything and everything in its vicinity? Scratch nightmare. Thankfully, there are a number of things you can do to remove the bad appearances of scratches on wooden furniture. 

If you only have a few small scratches to cover up, try rubbing shoe polish over the damaged area and buffing with a dry cloth. Be sure to match the shade of the polish to the furniture, as you don't want any obvious joints between the buffed area and the original polish. There are also a number of furniture crayons on the market that professional furniture restorers use to disguise scratches. 

Long, fine hairline scratches can be covered up with a wood dye pen for all shades of furniture. Be careful when applying this -- a little goes a long way and it's better to build up the scratch over several layers than applying too much at the first attempt. 

Fixing Loose Joints

Joints that are damaged but haven't yet broken off can oftentimes be repaired by applying more glue to the joint and then clamping the pieces together as the glue hardens. If the fracture is small, you can have a lot of success by soaking the break with a wood-swelling liquid that will expand the wood, causing the joint to tighten. 

If your joints have broken off entirely, don't despair. First, clean all of the surfaces with a craft knife and scrape away all of the old glue entirely until the bare wood is exposed. After this, apply a generous helping of PVA glue and clamp the joint together until the glue has set. Of course, this removes some mobility from the joint however the aesthetics will only be affected slightly. 

Restoring Small Dents

Small dents may seem like a headache at first, but with a little ingenuity they can be restored to near their original condition. The trick is to lay a damp cloth over the dent and place the tip of a hot iron into the cloth. The steam generated from the iron causes the wood fibers to swell, which can cause small dents to rise into their original position quite quickly. 

After allowing the fibers to rise, you can repair the damaged finish by applying a new layer of polish or rubbing the surface down. This trick will only work for shallow dents; however, if the dents are significant, they may be beyond repair. 

Removing Hard Wax

Wax that has been left to dry and is now seemingly attached for dear life to your furniture may seem like a headache at first, but don't worry - there is a fix. The simplest way of removing this type of stain is to return it to its liquid state by heating (a hairdryer works great for this!) and then wiping away the substance. Be careful with the setting on your hairdryer however as you don't want to char the surface of the furniture! 

It that doesn't do the trick, you can try wiping the area over with a mild surface cleaner. This should remove the hard grime without damaging the top layer of the wood. If the wax seems too stubborn to wipe, you can use fine wire wool, but be careful not to rub too hard. 

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