How To Hide Scratches On Wood Furniture – The post on how to remove wood scratches on furniture and cabinets is sponsored by The Home Depot.

What if you don’t want to paint wood, but you don’t want to strip it and re-stain it, too? What if you just want to remove the wood scratches and restore it to its original glory? Well, there is a way to restore it. That’s what I tried to figure out with my latest thrift store furniture makeover. I knew there had to be a better way to restore tables, chairs and other wood furniture (and even kitchen cabinets!) instead of painting or stripping.

How To Hide Scratches On Wood Furniture

How To Hide Scratches On Wood Furniture

I painted every single piece of wood furniture I bought from the thrift store. That is, until I built my own custom bathroom vanity from scratch. Manipulating the red oak, shaping it into something that started as just a vision in my head, sparked an appreciation that didn’t exist before. Suddenly I wanted to preserve wood, to discover it, to re-contaminate it, to bring it back to life. It is a living thing after all.

Light And Dark Scratch Remover For Wood Furniture And Floor Cover Nicks And Scratches

After building the vanity, I thought long and hard about whether a piece of wood was destined to be restored or painted. If it had a bunch of knobs, it was often painted (have you ever tried to strip and re-stain the round legs in the kitchen?! Trust me – it’s the worst kind of DIY punishment).

But if it’s a flat surface like a desk, table, or vanity, I usually try to salvage the wood top, like the beautiful pink French Provincial Vanity I picked up for $10.

Chairs, however, are a whole separate beast. There are so many sides and parts, some of them hard to reach, some of them crooked, that it makes stripping time-consuming and difficult.

That’s what I tried to figure out with this amazing little $20 thrifted wooden rocking chair that I almost overlooked at the thrift store one day.

Wood Flooring Scratch Repair

Thrift store furniture can be in near-perfect condition, but just have a few scratches that you need to hide, or it can be a total strip job that can take hours (days, maybe??) to restore. Fortunately, this rocking chair was the former: great condition but a bit battered with scratches in the wood. Not to mention that there were three terrible layers of upholstery on the seat (I discovered later) that had to be changed. But it was in solid condition, which was a plus. Now the question was, could I restore this wooden chair without stripping? Can I bring it back to life? We were about to find out!

About 6 months ago I picked up a pack of these wood repair markers because I was curious if they worked for removing scratches on wood furniture, cabinets and wood floors. An opportunity came up recently where the company that makes these wanted to sponsor an Instagram video of me using some of these markers, including trying out their furniture restoration solution. My curiosity was piqued. If it worked as well as I hoped, it could potentially save you and I a whoooolllle a lot of headaches when it comes to restoring thrifted furniture!

In this blog post, I’ll walk you through what I did to restore the wooden rocking chair and give you some tips on using these wood repair markers so you too can have success using them! Ready? Let’s jump in with the materials you need to fix wood scratches! (And yes, although this post is aimed at wooden furniture and cabinets, it also works to fix scratches on wooden floors).

How To Hide Scratches On Wood Furniture

(The following materials are affiliate links to HomeDepot.com. Shopping through these links costs you nothing but gives a small commission to Thrift Diving. Thank you!)

How To Remove Scratches On Wood Furniture In 13 Ways

From the close-ups of this rocking chair, you can see that the wood scratches are minimal. I think if I reupholster these seat cushions and leave the wood alone, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. But it wouldn’t look “fresh”. The wood would still look like it had been seen for a decade or two.

There are of course some parts of the chair that had a little more damage, when an animal scratched and cut the edge of the leg. There wasn’t much I could do to it as I tried to restore it without sanding – just wood markers and some gloss. But I was hoping to dress it up nicely by coloring it with the wood repair markers.

But most of these scratches and dings were pretty simple. I couldn’t wait to see how well I could fix them!

Now that you know what I was working with, let’s jump into the step-by-step tutorial on how to remove wood scratches. Or better yet, how

Parker & Bailey Touch Up Markers

Wood scratches, because really, removing scratches is best done with sandpaper (or colored wax, which I have no experience using, but am curious to try one day!). But for this post, we’ll skip the sandpaper, filler wax, or anything else. We see just how well wood repair manufacturers perform, along with wipe gloss! 🙂

Before doing a project with furniture, you always want to wipe it down first. Sounds pretty simple, but I won’t lie that sometimes I just jump right in to paint a piece of furniture. Silly, I know, but this was eons ago when I started refinishing furniture. Call it lazy. Call it ignorance. But now I know better. Including repair of wood scratches. The chair needs a good cleaning. My go-to for cleaning furniture projects before painting or refinishing is Simple Green. Mix about 1 oz with 1 cup of water, spray it on, wipe it off, then wipe with a clean, fresh cloth.

Before washing the wood, however, you may want to remove any fittings on the furniture. In this case, the seat of the chair must come out. I used my Dremel GO 4-Volt Max Lithium-Ion Cordless Screwdriver (supplied by The Home Depot as part of their Home Depot ProSpective program where I test new tools, which is awesome!). This cordless screwdriver was perfect for removing the screws holding the seat in place.

How To Hide Scratches On Wood Furniture

It’s just the right size to fit in tight spaces (so if you’re removing or adding knobs and handles when making furniture, it’s small enough to fit in those tight spaces).

How To Revive Wood Furniture Without Refinishing It

I like that it plugs into a USB to charge. And can drive screws twice as fast as other cordless screwdrivers. Perfect for your DIY toolbox!

(Pssst! If you’re someone who doesn’t want to own or invest in big bulky power tools, this cordless screwdriver is for you!).

Wood repair markers should always be tested in an area that is not easily seen. So when fixing scratches on a wooden table, choose an edge that is not in the middle of the table top. If you choose the wrong color, you don’t want to show the mistake.

For my rocking chair makeover, I tested on the back of the rocking chair legs, on the edge. If I mixed or picked a wrong color, this spot was less likely to be noticeable.

Pcs Furniture Touch Up Markers Remove Scratches Laminate Wood Floor Repair Pen 5034753038404

Remember that you have 6 choices of wood repair markers in the kit. Don’t be afraid to test each of them.

Now that you’ve chosen the wood repair markers that work best for your color of wood on your chair, table, (or even hardwood floors), here’s the best way to attack the project.

As you can see, too much alcohol wiped over the area will dry out the wood, so just be careful when trying to remove any excess wood repair marker. It’s best to just be super careful and only use the marker

How To Hide Scratches On Wood Furniture

Chips, scratches and gouges in wooden furniture (and even kitchen cabinets) draw a lot of attention to that area. What I like about the wood repair markers is that even if the scratch or chip is still there, it

Amazon.com: Wooden Scratch Repair Fix Wooden Scratch Remover Furniture Polisher Repair Paint For Floors Tables Carpenters Furniture Polisher

Less noticeable! Here’s a screenshot of how well they work on the rocking chair I restored, using the oak marker.

And with the markers I was able to take surface debris and fill it in completely where it wasn’t noticeable at all! No photoshop there, just plan disguise with markers. 🙂

These wood repair markers can also be used on kitchen cabinets and wood floors. Although I don’t have a test for the wood floor, I tried it on my kitchen cabinets, which you can see that one area was quite scratched. Although it was not perfect, it

Blend the scratch so well that when the company comes over I need not be embarrassed. 🙂

How To Get Scratches Out Of Wood Floors: 5 Diy Solutions

After you hide the scratches and let it dry for about 20 minutes, whether you are fixing furniture or cabinets, you definitely want to follow up with something to make the wood furniture shine. I used this cabinet and furniture restorer, which came with its own microfiber cloth, to smooth in two coats. I didn’t buff it, I just washed it in as smooth as I could

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