Steps To Restore/Refinish Wood Table/Furniture Without Sanding
Refinishing refers to restoring the wood furniture finish. The steps to restore the finish of wood furniture without sanding are as follows;
- Wipe Down The Wood Furniture With Mineral Spirits: Before beginning the refinishing process, the user needs to wipe down the wood furniture with mineral spirits. The mineral spirits will saturate the finish temporarily and provide the user an idea regarding the finish appearance after the furniture will be coated with a wipe-on finish. If the wood furniture looks good after the wipe down with mineral spirits, the user needs to clean the furniture and then apply a wipe-on oil-based finish over it. The wood furniture looking bad after the mineral spirits wipe down will require extra restoration steps.
- Clean The Furniture: After that, the user needs to thoroughly clean the wood furniture by using a solution containing water and dish soap in equal proportions. First, the user needs to dip a sponge into the solution, wring out excess liquid, and then scrub the entire wood furniture gently with it.
- Remove White Wrings: The next step will be to remove white wrings from wood furniture. First, the user needs to apply petroleum jelly over the wrings and let it sit overnight. The oil present in the petroleum jelly will penetrate inside the finish and will eventually remove or make the white rings less visible. Alternatively, the user can replace petroleum jelly with any other white rings removal product available in the market.
- Scrape Paint Spatters: After that, the user needs to scrape paint spatters from the wood furniture by using a sharp straightedge razor. It has been recommended to scrape off the paint spatters without damaging the finish.
- Replace Missing Wood: If the wood furniture has damaged molding, chipped wood, or missing veneer, the user needs to fix it up with epoxy putty. First, the user needs to fill the spot with epoxy filler and let it dry as per label instructions before sanding the epoxy to shape. After that, the user needs to finish the epoxy spot similar to the wood furniture.
- Apply Gel Stain: The next step is to apply a gel stain over the wood furniture in order to restore its color. First, the user needs to dip a soft cloth into the dark gel stain and then wipe the entire wood furniture with it. The excess gel stain from the wood furniture should be wiped off by using a clean cloth.
- Fix Small Cracks: After applying the gel stain, if the user sees tiny cracks or holes into the wood furniture, he needs to fill them up with matching fill pencils, wax repair sticks, or wax fill sticks.
- Fix Dents: The small dents in wood furniture can be fixed by wetting them. The moisture will swell the dented wood fibers and put them back into the original shape. It is necessary that the moisture penetrates into the wood for which the user needs to make tiny slits into the dents with a razor.
- Apply Wipe-On Finish: The last step in the process is to apply a coat of wipe-on finish over the entire wood furniture. First, the user needs to pour a small amount of wipe-on finish over a clean rag and then apply it over the wood furniture in swirling motion. The excess finish from the wood furniture should be wiped off with a clean rag in the direction of the wood grain. After that, the user needs to let the finish dry overnight before putting the wood furniture back to use.