I’ve had a water ring on one of my most precious pieces of furniture for a while now and I’ve been meaning to tackle it but was scared to try out different techniques in case I damaged it further.
It’s a vintage piece so I certainly didn’t want to ruin it forever but, in all honesty, when we first got the chest of drawers from an auction, the wooden surface was in a horrible state anyway and needed refinishing.
So it was doubly sad that the water ring had happened after the drawers had been so carefully restored. I didn’t know what to do to solve the situation so I just left it – for months.
However, it had got to the stage that I just wanted it fixed so I spent a hour one morning trying out some water-ring repair hacks to see what worked.
You can find all kinds of hacks online including toothpaste, vinegar, olive oil and so on. In fact, I’ve previously used a mixture of kitchen ingredients to DIY my own scratch-remover, which worked really well on my mid-century furniture.
This time, I thought the baking soda idea might work so I gave that a go first. I say ‘first’ because it didn’t work. The ring remained. Look at my photos below to see why I DON’T recommend this hack.
I mixed up the baking soda mixture and rubbed it onto the water ring. After wiping off the paste, the area looked great while the wooden surface was damp…
I thought I’d solved the problem so easily BUT after a few hours of drying out, the white water ring returned. PLUS, where I’d rubbed the abrasive baking powder paste into the wood, it had faded the area a little too. So now I had a bigger mark to repair!
The next hack I tried was mayonnaise. You simply put a layer of mayo onto the white water ring and leave it for an hour or so. Apparently, the oil in the mayonnaise draws out the moisture from the wood. I was sceptical, but I gave it a go.
To be completely honest with you, I then carried on with my day and forgot all about it. It must have been about six hours later that I went back into the room and spotted the melted mayonnaise. Oops!
I used a soft cloth to wipe it off and couldn’t believe it – I couldn’t even see where the ring had been. Plus, while rubbing the mayo into the surface, it must have oiled it up a bit because the faded patch where the baking powder had been rubbed wasn’t as bad.
So, that was the end of my water-ring hack experiment, because it worked! The only thing now is that the rest of the unit looks scuffed and less glossy in comparison so perhaps I’ll have to go over other areas with the mayo too!
Also, in the photo below, you can still see that the patch is a little faded from the baking powder hack so it will need retreating or staining – so I’d say definitely DON’T use the baking powder option, it created more of a problem for me!
Also, watch out for your walls – I didn’t realise at the time but when I was wiping off the mayonnaise, the cloth must have touched the wall a little because there’s now a shiny smear on the matt-painted wall. Urgh, it’s like chasing your tail!
I hope this hack experiment helps you if you’re trying to repair your own scuffed or water-damaged furniture. Let me know if you have any other successful wood-restoring recipes in the comments below, I’d love to get your tips.
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