How to Restore Real Hardwood Furniture

Whether it’s a cherished family heirloom or a great garage sale find, real hardwood furniture can take a beating over time. While hardwood is amazingly durable, it’s also paradoxically vulnerable to age and abuse. Crackled finishes, water stains, and other imperfections can occur due to daily use or misuse. Here are some tips for bringing back its luster and life.

Assessing the Situation

Are you sure your hardwood furniture really needs restoration? Sometimes years of gunk and grime buildup can make a piece of furniture look a lot worse off than it really is. Give it a good cleaning first so that you can get an accurate picture of the damage.

Before you can clean it, however, you need to know what type of finish it is. The furniture’s finish will determine the type of cleaning method you need to use. You should be especially careful of finishes that you suspect may be antique, as disturbing the natural age on these types of pieces can destroy their value.

Restoring a Finish

If you’ve determined the furniture’s finish and given it a good cleaning accordingly, and find that it does indeed need further attention, it could be that the finish needs touching up or total reapplication. If it’s not an antique or you’re not concerned about value, or if you don’t want to match the finish, you can simply remove the existing finish by sanding and then refinish as you like.

If you do want to match or blend the existing hardwood furniture finish, however, you’ll have a bit of extra work to do. If the problem is cracking in the finish, you can usually re-amalgamate it using either denatured alcohol, lacquer thinner or a combination of the two. Furniture finished with varnish will most likely need to be completely stripped and refinished. Note that re-amalgamation only works for restoring the finish itself; scratches that run into the wood require more intense methods.

Removing Water Stains

Moisture can lead to a white or milky “stain” on hardwood furniture. This can be an isolated occurrence, such as a beverage being set down without a coaster, or it can occur throughout the piece after being in a high-humidity environment. You can usually remove surface water stains by rubbing the affected areas thoroughly with an oil polish.

If that doesn’t work, try using a mild abrasive paste such as toothpaste, baking soda or a bit of No. 0000 steel wool to gently rub the area. Clean the area completely, use dab of mild solvent to smooth the finish, and then apply a good coat of wax or other finishing polish that’s appropriate to the type of finish you have.

A good piece of hardwood furniture can be an excellent asset in any home, from functional, design and value perspectives alike. Before trying any restoration techniques on your furniture, be sure that you know what you’re dealing with and that you’re not destroying any value of the piece by tampering with it. When you’re confident in your understanding, go ahead and make the piece your own — custom restored to your unique tastes.