Wood Furniture Repair

Small scratches. If you have a small scratch that has takes off the stain or finish of the wood, chances are that the scratch is much lighter than the finish. The most easy and best technique for fixing this has always been a paint marker or paint pen made for wood using a similar colored stain. While the stain from the wood stain marker is still wet, we like to wipe off the excess to make it less noticeable. If you wipe too hard though, you will remove the wood stain and you will need to reapply. In that case try it again. It is very easy to get really good results on table and chair legs. Particle board with laminated with plastic (fake wood venire) desks will not come out as great but the result will almost always be a huge improvement unless the damage is too bad. 

For much larger damages such as deep gouges that need to be fixed are usually best done by refinishing. Using wood putty that accepts the stain you use to refinish the wood is best. Some good tips for flawless refinishing: sand it good the first time trying to take a shortcut here may cause you to start over, but don't break through any layers of venire (layers of wood glued and pressed together to make it look like real solid wood). Use a tack rag and keep the surface clean and dust free. Dust particle dried in the polyurethane will be large bumps after coating.

Furniture First Aid Kit
Includes furniture cleaner, ring remover, paste wax, wood filler sticks and steel wool...
Furniture First Aid Kit

For refinishing fine woods, furniture, and cabinets as well as creating a new wooden furniture piece we always recommend Rockler Woodworking

Home interior and exterior touch up: The most difficult part of touching up using home paint is the color match. We recommend going to a local paint store, Sherwin Williams, or Home depot with a computerized color matching system. The home depot store in my neighborhood needs a quarter sized sample to match. The best way is to keep the old leftover paint for use later. After the room was painted and the can was sealed tight, hold the paint can upside down for a few seconds. This allows the paint to seal the can from drying. When using old paint make sure to mix it well. Using old paint from the same original paint can can have a higher oily gloss if not mixed properly. Another good method to store house paint is in a clean baby food jar. When paint is wet,  it tends to have a different appearance than when it is dry.
 

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