Handyman Tells How To Remove Scratches From Furniture
I found a piece of furniture that was going to be thrown away due to a series of scratches on the top. I figured this was a perfect opportunity to test out some handyman skills. It happened to be a table and the scratches were more like gouges. In fact, gouges is probably putting it mildly. This was a table with a gloss finish that had been mangled during a move. It had both deep and wide gouges.
Never having repaired furniture finishes before, I didn't hold out a lot of hope, but felt with the right process, it just might turn into a keeper.
I was pleasantly surprised by the finished product. I used three products for the repair. The first was a stainable wood filler. This filled the gouge to be flush with the rest of the surface. I applied this with a putty knife and cleaned the overfill off with a damp rag.
Once this dried, I stained the putty with a wood stain marker pen by Homax. I chose the closest color and applied thin coats to the putty. It seemed to take a while for the final color to appear. The initial color was light but darkened slightly as time passed. The final color was awfully close.
The finishing touch was matching the sheen of the table top. For this I used a scratch repair pen by Varathane. This applied a glossy finish on the repair that further helped it to blend in. It was too glossy initially, but after using a soft cloth, I was able to blend it in fairly well.
After I was satisfied with the finished product, I started to touch up smaller scratches. I didn't have to fill any of these and instead went right to the stain and gloss. This system worked beautifully to cover those.