Refinishing Wood Furniture to Remove Scratches with only Two Household Items

Refinishing wood furniture is easy with only two household items (vinegar and olive oil) to remove scratches and bring it back to life.

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 refinish it. I’m going to show you two household ingredients to easily refinish wood furniture and remove scratches from the wood.

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 to restore and rejuvenate wood.

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.

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 was in great condition, well, all but the top piece of the desk. It had obviously been 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 just a few household ingredients.

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.

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.

Doesn’t 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.

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 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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Household solution to refinish wood furniture

• 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. 

Mix these two ingredients and use a soft cloth to dip and rub all over the wood furniture. You should be able to see the scratches magically disappear!

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!

Refinishing Wood and Removing Scratches video

Best part about this wipe-on finish furniture hack- it restored the top of the desk to the same color as the rest of this piece.

It’s funny how a few household items can work as well, or better, than a cleaning or refinishing furniture product you could buy at the store.

Get out the vinegar and olive oil and start bringing those old antique beauties back to life!

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I love finding easy household hacks to bring old things back to life!

Lindsey**