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Homemade Furniture Polish to Remove Minor Scratches in Wood

Removing scratches from wood can be a tiresome and daunting task, I get it! I see so many great pieces of solid wood furniture at thrift stores and yard sales because someone just didn’t want to take the time to remove minor scratches that became and eye sore. This homemade furniture polish is such an awesome hack! I’m going to show you my DIY wood polish recipe to easily refinish wooden furniture.

Do you own a solid piece of wood furniture that used to look great but now it’s a little dinged up and worn? Maybe this old piece of furniture has been handed down through a few generations and might not be in the best condition anymore. Do me a favor, don’t EVER get rid of it because it can be brought back to life.

Guess what? I found a super easy and cheap (probably free if you have the items on hand) hack with natural ingredients to restore and rejuvenate wood. Not to mention these simple ingredients are without harmful chemicals.

A friend of mine was moving and getting rid of a really nice solid wood desk, so I jumped on the opportunity to grab it. I loved the style of this antique piece of furniture.

The wood surfaces were in great condition, well, all but the top piece of the desk. It was obviously used to write on. It was all scratched up and the top piece of wood was a different color than the rest of the desk.

This is when I decided to refinish the desk with a trick I learned using my own furniture polish. This mixture combines homemade cleaning products and homemade wood polish in one!

the desk before I applied the solution to remove scratches

You can see above the scratch marks and discoloration from years of wear and tear. Although this desk was not in terrible condition, I still wanted to refinish the wood, with natural cleaners.

Since I already knew this was a solid piece of antique wood furniture, I wanted to find an easy way to “polish” or remove the scratches without having to sand and re stain the wood. Could this even be done?

Does wood polish remove scratches from furniture?

My first thought was, “Duh, I just needed to buy polish.” The problem with polish is that it looks great for the first hour after you’ve cleaned it. Once the polish is dry, the cracks come back and it looks just like it did before it was polished. Anyone else feel this way?

I needed a product that would really absorb deep into the wood and remove the scratches and make it look new and refinished. Also, I wanted a product I could spray around my kids without artificial fragrances and harmful ingredients.

The older I get the more I’ve learned to look around the house and use natural household items for cleaning rather than harsh abrasive (and expensive) products.

Speaking of household items used to refinish furniture, check out my list of household items I used to stain wood.

Let me tell you, some of the best cleaning tricks are from simple products like white Vinegar.

Speaking of Vinegar, this is one of the two items I found that works wonders for removing and refinishing wood furniture.

When my mom told me about this little furniture refinishing “hack,” I thought it would be just like using regular furniture polish. What I mean is, I thought it might work for an hour or so and then the scratches and dings would re appear.

Guess what, I was delightfully wrong.

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Side note; this scratch removal hack won’t work for heavily dinged up wood furniture. This works great if you are looking to give a slightly scratched piece of wood a quick facelift.

For more in depth tutorial on how to strip wood furniture, how to stain wood or how to paint wood, check out my entire library of refinishing furniture tutorials.

Homemade furniture polish to restore wood

1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 olive oil

Note: I only needed less than 1/4 of this mixture for the top of this desk. If you are not doing a full furniture piece I would suggest to mix up 1 part vinegar to 1 part olive oil with enough product you think you will need.

White distilled vinegar and olive oil used to remove wood scratches

Mix these two ingredients and use a clean cloth to dip and rub all over the wood furniture. You should be able to see the scratches magically disappear! You can even mix them into a spray bottle!

How does olive oil and vinegar work to remove scratches from wood?

Vinegar is acidic and works to cut through the dirt and grime and clean the wood very well while the olive oil really seeps into the wood and covers the scratches and small abrasions. The oil also puts moisture back into the wood to help restore the color.

After I rubbed the vinegar/oil solution over the piece of furniture with a lint free rag, I let it sit about 10 minutes. After about 10 minutes I took a dry cloth and wiped the excess moisture away. I honestly expected to see the scratches reappear, but magically about 90% of them are gone!

Below is a picture of the AFTER!

Can you substitute other oils for the olive oil?

I was asked by a reader if you could use linseed oil, lemon oil, mineral oil, or jojoba oil instead of olive oil? The more research I’ve done on this, the more I’m leaning towards YES! As a matter of fact, products like linseed oil might even be BETTER than olive oil, as it will harden and hopefully protect better than the olive oil without as much greasy residue. That being said, most folks don’t have these more specific oils lying around their house. Just know that regular old olive oil will work if you don’t have access to other oil products.