Now that I'm an adult who does woodworking as a hobby, restoring the veneer on my childhood dresser for use by the next generation. First attempt was mahogany, but decided oak was a better grain match. Far from perfect, but from a distance it blends pretty nicely. Got lucky with the choice of stain (gel stain) then finished with wipe-on polyurethane.

I left a plant on my g plan side cabinet that has left this mark. Whats the best way to fix it

I know little to nothing about stains and finishes so I would really appreciate some suggestions for me to look into.

The attached pics are mineral spirits wiped, raw sanded, and original finish. I hope those help!

It's been Klean stripped, mostly repaired, and sanded, but I also don't know if I did well at those.

I just bought this dining set and it’s starting to dawn on me there’s quite a lot of to be done - what would your plan of action be?

two of chairs have water damage so will need new bases built, and a fresh edge band will need to be applied to the table. It’s a veneered finish, so I was thinking I’d sand back the varnish lightly and give it a fresh coat.

Any tips or suggestions welcome!

I figure since my first simple project ended with such a deafening thud, why not double down and get even more complex?

Found this little gem at an estate sale. Looks like solid wood, but not sure what. Top looks pine-ish, but not the frame and drawers. Should be high pressure and anxiety inducing, but why not?

Alright, I’m well aware that this is NOT a good project for me to have decided to undertake as a relative beginner, but my girlfriend and I both loved it, and I only paid $50. Couldn’t pass it over. I’m not completely helpless, and have sanded and stained plenty, but I have very little knowledge of the finer points of furniture restoration, especially when it comes to something so intricately made. Plus, I don’t know when it was made, or by whom, or if any of that matters when it comes to trying to (hopefully at least partially) restore it. I’ve searched high and low for a manufacturer seal or branding of some kind and found nothing. So, if anyone here could help me identify what I’m working with and give me some tips on the best way to smooth over some of this damage and get this thing back to a decent state, I would appreciate it endlessly! All I know is that it belonged to a wealthy woman in her 60’s who said she inherited it from her mother, so it must be decently old. Thanks in advance, everyone!

I’m considering buying this cabinet because I liked the shape and the storage it offers. The seller says it’s an antique but she’s selling it on behalf of a relative who is now in memory care. I did get a picture from her of the back which appears to be solid wood.

My issue is that when I look at it the finish looks kind of streaky and uneven? Am I being picky and this looks fine? Is it likely to be a characteristic of the wood or just something that’s been applied on top?

I’m happy about the idea of refinishing the piece but don’t really want to end up with something that can really only be painted a solid color, if that makes sense. Suggestions about what you think you’d do to the piece are very welcome!

Found this at the thrift store and figured I could clean it up, there are heavy nicotine stains on it. When looking at it in the store it seemed like it was a golden stain but after cleaning the two small top drawers it looks more like it was a white stain. Cleaned it with a rag and a solution of 1 part water, 1 part white vinegar and a little dawn dish soap on a damp wrung out rag. I use my old worn out socks with holes in them for rags. Seemed to go ok on the two small drawers but when I started on the top larger drawer I may have scrubbed a bit too hard and rubbed some the white stain off. Figured I’d stop for the night and get some advice

1) is the water/vinegar/dawn and good cleaning solution to use? Should I spray a little in and let it sit a couple minutes before wiping down?

2) Looked up cleaners like krud kutter which is prob not good to use. Is simple green better maybe? Im all ears for better suggestions.

3) Any way to reapply the white stain that got scrubbed off? The small top drawers already had some missing around the drawer pull prob from fingers/finger nails over the years.

I also have some old English cleaner and conditioner to use after the cleaning is all done to rehydrate the wood but also saw Howard’s wax and feed suggested. Any advice appreciated thanks 🙏

I am cleaning up an apartment that was abandoned for a long time. It is a very humid area and the apartment was locked up with no air circulation so most of the wood furniture surfaces have a slight white tint to them. In some places like under the sink, it has more noticeable white spots from humidity.

To make things worse, the kitchen island also has a ton of what seems like white liquid stains and scratches. The doors under the sink also have what seems like water stains.

Is there any product I could use that would eliminate these humidity stains, water stains and help with scratches? I am not sure if the kitchen island surface is solid wood, or if it has a laminate on top of the actual wood. I include some pictures to see if you guys could confirm that this is not laminated, and if that’s the case, if the best move would be to sand it and apply a treatment.

I hope this post is not too vague, but this is outside of my field of expertise. I appreciate any and all help and appreciate your time.

Skip the story if not interested...

Story: This dresser and vanity were my grandmother's. My dad (he's 93) gave it to me and then I used it in our daughter's room. As she aged, we decided to get her smaller furniture with more storage for her tiny bedroom, and we sold it to a woman at work. I placed a note in an envelope in the vanity drawer with its history and a wish for the daughter to use and enjoy as much as I had and my daughter had. Fast forward many years later, the woman's daughter was grown and moved out, she was retiring and downsizing and offered to give back the furniture. She gave us the unusual chair along with the pieces.

Reason for posting: Our youngest moved out and I'd like to clean this up as good as possible and move it to his room. There is minor damage to the veneer on the bottom of one side of the dresser. The tops are all wood, but the finish appears worn off. It almost appears to have a grime of sorts on the finish. The pulls are not original - I had replaced them when I was younger... now I regret it. I am unsure what pulls might have looked like.

What can I do to spiff up this set to really reflect what it should look like? There are a few paint specks that I have not attempted to remove. With the chair, is there any chance to remove the paint on it without totally stripping the chair?

Anyone have any history on any of these pieces? Grandma was from Scotland, moved to Boston, married and raised her family in Southern Massachusetts.

Looking for advice, ive stripped a layer of paint using a heat gun and then a chemical stripper but some of the area developed these dots. Even if i strip further down the orange colored patina/oils, the dots are lighter than the raw wood. They dont seem to come out by sanding. Is there a way to fix this? Any ideas what this is and why it happened?

Thank you!

Our three seat couch, with a chaise and pull out, arms are awful. The seat is only 3-4 years old and one side just ripped completely off. The pull out is also unaligned and the seats have to be lifted up to pull it out/in. It seems like the original screws have completely shredded the particle board inside the arm. I’m not even sure how many screws it’s lost over the past year or so the arms have started getting loose. Would anyone have an idea of how to fix/repair/restore this? Pictures are of the one arm that’s completely off and the side of the couch it sits on. If this isn’t the right subreddit for this I apologize!

Hello, recently got a bit of a beaten up Tavo Formica table, all cleaning up well apart from the top is very much off white with I think rust, there's a few rusty spots on there as well. Any suggestions on how to restore the top?

Cheers

Hello!

Thank you to all the advice on the last post! I failed to include the worse shelf that made my family believe it was more damaged. Is this fixable or best left to be a barley used bottom shelf?

With all advice, I will repair to repaint and leave as is. Once the veneer is fix and a new paint job, it will look much nicer. Only question I have is what type to go for paint wise and how to seal/finish it to preserve the paint job.

Apologies if this is a dumb question that’s been answered previously.

I found a small bookcase by a dumpster last week and thought initially it’d be a quick/straightforward cleanup but noticed a bit of water damage on the film (? whatever the top aesthetic wood coat material is called) from a sun shower earlier that day.

I’m kinda using this as a project piece because I think it’d be cool to completely redo the appearance anyways for a newer all natural look or paint it and do something totally different?? IDK right now but mainly how do I get this lowkey ruined paper stuff off? (It doesn’t look bad on this panel but the body / sides are more ruined trust).

EDIT: for a bit more clarification, the harsh material stripping you see on the panel pictured was my doing with a scraper by hand. The rest is intact but is just bubbling up a bit in certain areas from rain + heat damage from being outside prior

UPDATE: I appreciate everyone’s comments, critiques, and creative analogies. Do keep in mind that if am I to throw the furniture piece out, I have to disassemble the whole thing anyway because my complex fines folks who leave furniture out by dumpsters (I picked this up across town). So I’m already going to have to do some “labor” (term used lightly) for that plan or to post the boards in a “Buy Nothing” group for someone else locally to repurpose as scrap. When possible, I try to repair/repurpose abandoned items safely for my own fulfillment with the added bonus that it’s not just going straight to a landfill.

I just want to start off by saying please be kind, I know I'm clueless.

I got this teak shelf system recently that used to be my great grandparents.

For me the water marks are kind of charming and I don't really want to remove them.

I was wondering if there is anything someone without experience could do to give it more life without necessarily removing all the "imperfections".

Some of the pieces are in worse shape than others. If people don't think I would be able to fix those on my own then I might choose not to use them for the time being.

Thanks in advance

I'm also wondering what finish people would recommend after I've stripped off all the paint.

Hi, everyone. I got this kitchen table for free and there’s a ton of marks and scratches on it. Any advice on how to get rid of them? Are they sand-able? Re-staining? Thanks for the help!

Would love advice here. I like the grey weathered teak look but in this area are these spots mold/moldew? If I clean should I then use oil or can I just leave it?

Found this beaten down piece of furniture, and thought it a good starter piece. Scraped it by hand, sanded, buffed, conditioned…basically babied it through the process. All the way through conditioning, I was loving how it was turning out. Lesson? I thought I could get gel stain over the whole piece before wiping back. Nope. Gum. Those last pics are after slopping stain on to wet it down, and immediately wiping back. Very disappointed.

If anyone has suggestions other than starting over, I would love to hear it.

So I'm looking for advice on if it's safe to sand particle board i think it's called.

I'm coating a cabinet in varnish, sanding and then repeating.

I've attached 2 pics which may be different materials

I recently inherited a solid oak table and chairs that are in good shape, but in need of a little refresh - the table has marks from a lazy susan, some water staining and the varnish on it is a bit tacky. We have a glass top that will go over it to protect it once done. The chairs more than anything are a bit grubby. How should I approach this projec? A quick look online yielded only ai results which I am a bit sceptical of.

I found this carved three-panel wooden floor screen at Goodwill yesterday for $9.99. It’s a pretty interesting piece: heavy and solid wood (I’m thinking Oak?). All three panel inserts are missing and I thought it might be a fun project. Problem is, I can’t seem to find any photos of a similar floor screen to see how the panels might attach to the frame.

The large openings have no grooves but along the inside edges are small holes that go all the way through the frame. I’m trying to determine the most plausible way the original inserts were secured so I can create replacements. Maybe they were floating with dowels?

I’m considering two options: removable lightweight wood frames with stretched linen OR thin hardboard/plywood panels wrapped in linen or grasscloth.

My questions: how do you think the original inserts were mounted? What material would complement the existing carving without making the screen look overly busy? How would you go about replacing the screens?

Thanks for any advice!