Remove Marks, Burns, Scratches And Paint From Wooden Furniture

We all want to keep our furniture looking new and well taken care of. With a little extra attention your furniture can keep its good looks year after year. You can remove burns, scratches, marks, and paint with a few simple, inexpensive home made remedies, and also make your own furniture polish. Prevention is better than a cure; Use coasters on all your table tops or anywhere that someone is apt to place a glass. Wooden coasters with felt on the base is a good choice. If they have a raised edge so much the better. You can make your own cover to protect your dining table from hot containers and spills. Measure the area you want to protect and buy a piece of thick material to cover it. you might want to double the thickness of the material or place a piece of plastic under it. Now, cover with a pretty table cloth. To Remove Burns on Wooden Furniture Mix vegetable oil with powdered pumice or rottenstone to make a paste. Smooth it into the burned area only. Rub gently with the grain. Wipe the area clean and polish as usual. Or you can try rubbing the area with nail polish remover, or petroleum jelly, If it isn’t too bad one of these might work. If you only want to camouflage the spot you can blend an array of colored markers to match the color of the surrounding area. In any case, once the mark is gone you can usually fill the dent with several coats of clear nail polish. Let dry between each application. Scratches With small scratches you can cover the damage with a little shoe polish. Blend different colors if necessary to match the color of the wood. Children’s wax colors work well, because they have a variety of colors to blend. Felt tip markers work, too. For light scratches on unlacquered furniture, you can use the mild compound used on automobile finishes. Rub a little on and off with a damp cloth. You can shine the wood up with a little floor wax. Keep your pets from chewing the furniture by wiping the accessible areas down with oil of cloves. Try to keep your wooden furniture out of direct sunlight. Sunlight has a drying effect on wood. Apply corn plasters on the bottom of your chair legs. They will prevent scratches on your floor. Polishing and Dusting A good homemade polish can be made from, 1/3 cup white vinegar, 1/3 cup turpentine and 1/3 cup boiled linseed oil. Add 4 tsp. almond extract for fragrance. Mix in a jar and shake well before using. Apply with a soft damp cloth and polish with another soft cloth. (Do not boil linseed oil, It’s a different product.) * Another polish recipe is a mixture of 3 parts olive oil and 1 part lemon oil. * Another is 1 tsp.olive oil and 1 cup white vinegar. You can always replace the lemon oil with mineral oil, because that’s the base of lemon oil. When choosing a polish or wood treatment you will want to avoid ingredients like alcohol and ammonia. Boiled linseed doesn’t mean you have to boil it first. You can buy boiled linseed from your store. It dries fast unlike linseed oil which never dries. You definitely don’t want to use that. * Waxing: A good car wax can be used on furniture. It might be preferred because it doesn’t attract dust. * Emergency waxing: you can get a pretty good shine by rubbing with wax paper. Buff afterwards with a soft cloth. * For hard to reach places: spray the bristles of a paint brush with your homemade polish and dust away. * To remove wax: soften with your hair dryer on medium heat, When it starts to melt wipe it off with a soft cloth immediately and continue heating the area. When all the wax is removed, wipe the area with a mild white water/vinegar solution and polish as usual. * Paint removal: Try applying linseed oil. Let sit until it softens and scrape off paint carefully with a plastic or wooden spoon. Stain removers; Lemon extract, oil of peppermint, and as a last resort, white toothpaste. Always when removing stains and marks start with the most gentle solution. Repeat several times before going to a more drastic solution. Polish well when treatment is finished.