How to Remove Ink Stain from Wood, Furniture, or Any Surface
If wooden furniture is a household item and not a museum exhibit, it is difficult to protect it from various stains. Someone in the household might put a hot mug on the countertop, spill coffee, wine, or water, put a piece of fatty food on it, etc. Little children and grandchildren will try—they will paint the cabinet doors with pencils or ink.
It should be said right away that not all stains on furniture are equally simple and can be removed independently. Some require specialists’ work experience, professional tools, and compositions. But some “traces of human activity” still need to be eliminated using means from the arsenal of folk wisdom.
How to Remove Ink Stain from Wood, Furniture Yourself
Unpolished furniture can develop a variety of stains over time, including:
1. Fatty. It is almost impossible to remove them from wood yourself, especially when it comes to softwoods that absorb grease perfectly and deeply. However, you can try. For example, sand the contaminated area with sandpaper. Don’t get carried away with the process; you need to stop often (literally after each “cycle” of 3-4 movements), sweep away the resulting wood dust, and check the result.
By the way, if the stain is fresh, you can eliminate it with a regular soap solution. But you need to act immediately, as soon as the fat gets on the wood.
Another original way to get rid of greasy wax stains on furniture is to take a knife, dip its blade into boiling water (for 15-20 seconds, no longer), and then remove the wax drop with a blunt edge. The freed surface should be wiped with a cloth soaked in gasoline and then polished with a soft cloth.
2. White spots from water. You can try to “defeat” them using a hot iron. Cover the stained surface with a towel, then run the iron over it. However, this must be done quickly so as not to damage the furniture with a hot household appliance. Otherwise, it will turn out even worse. You can also try removing white spots from an unpolished surface with lemon oil.
Wipe the stain with a cloth soaked in it, and then “scrub” (lightly, without force) with steel wool. At the end of the process, treat the area of the former blot with denatured alcohol.
3. Spots of unknown origin. This also happens. The contamination appears on a cabinet or table, but no one remembers the cause. Then, you need to act with a cotton cloth generously soaked in milk. A laundry soap solution can also help. Be sure to polish the treated surface with a piece of velvet or wool at the end of the procedure.
4. Lime or chalk stains can be removed with table vinegar.
5. Fresh coffee stains can be wiped off with an ammonia solution or ethyl alcohol solution.
6. Chocolate stains, as well as stains from juices and wines, can be removed using the most common detergents. A napkin generously soaked in them is placed on the stain for a couple of minutes, and then the surface is blotted with another napkin, but this time dry.
7. Acetone (or a similar solvent) can be used to remove stains left on furniture by nail polish, decorative cosmetics, colored pencils, or felt-tip pens. But you need to act very carefully so as not to discolor the wood’s actual surface.
8. Shoe paint or shoe polish is removed with unique products that can be purchased at any hardware store.
Construction stores also sell special masking markers for laminate flooring. These markers can also be used to remove a paint stain from furniture. You just need to choose a tone to match the color of the damaged wooden object.
How to remove stains from furniture polish?
Unfortunately, the surface of polished furniture is also not immune to the appearance of all kinds of stains on it. Some are more difficult to deal with than similar ones on unpolished objects, while others are easier.
In any case, you should try to remove the stain yourself before contacting a specialist. Moreover, some contaminants can be easily removed using folk recipes:
1. Watermarks on polishing can be removed with a swab dipped in vegetable or machine oil or a mixture of cigarette ash and vegetable oil. If such a stain has just appeared, it can be easily wiped off with a regular school eraser, and then the cleaned area can be treated with a professional polish.
2. The rim left on the polish after a wet glass can easily be “rubbed off” with a cut of a walnut kernel. Then, you must wait until the nut oil penetrates profoundly and polish the surface.
3. It is enough to wipe the varnish infested with flies with a rag soaked in kerosene.
4. Green paint or ink can be removed even from light polishing. The spilled liquid is thoroughly blotted to do this, and its trace is erased with a school eraser.
5. Traces from a hot iron or kettle on the varnish are “treated” with oil and salt. You can also rub the stained surface with paraffin, line it with a blotting cloth, and lightly press it with an iron, but this time warm.
6. White plaque from polishing is removed with a small amount of toothpaste. If the whitish stain turns out to be particularly persistent, it is recommended to mix the paste with regular baking soda on the tip of a knife. Then, the remaining composition is removed with a damp cloth, and the surface is dried and polished with a soft, dry cloth.
7. Grease stains and fingerprints from varnish are removed with talcum powder.
8. And candle wax is removed from polished furniture in a very original way. Ice (literally a few cubes) is placed in a plastic bag. The bag is then placed on the wax spot and held until the wax becomes brittle. The candle drop is removed with a spatula or the blunt surface of a knife blade, and the freed surface is wiped with a soft rag soaked in a warm solution of apple cider vinegar.
9. If a piece of paper is stuck tightly to a polished tabletop, just drop some olive oil. Wait 15-20 minutes, then remove everything with a soft cloth.
10. A “burn” from a cigarette or match that does not penetrate the varnish can be removed from furniture with mayonnaise! You must pour the sauce onto the stain, wait a few minutes, and then wipe it off with a damp cloth and polish the area with a dry cloth.
11. You can remove fresh fat from the polishing by cutting off a raw potato. Then, no trace of the recent stain will remain on the surface of the table or cabinet.
12. If a piece of adhesive tape sticks to the polishing, do not just tear it off – you can damage the furniture surface. It is better to drop some alcohol onto the tape and then go over it with a sponge soaked in a solution of dishwashing detergent. The tape will come off easily.
It is possible that polished furniture made of natural wood, which has been serving for many years, has old stains. These should be thickly coated with a mixture of table salt and vegetable oil. And leave for 2-3 hours. Then, shake off the remaining composition and rub the surface with a dry velvet cloth or wool.
Simply clean polished furniture that is dirty (dust, soot, etc.) with a well-wrung cloth soaked in a weak vinegar solution. Then, they polish it with a completely dry cloth or transparent shoe polish.
Light beige and white furniture is cleaned by cutting an onion and then polished with a dry cloth.
Protecting wooden furniture from stains
Stains on wooden furniture are always a problem. It is not always possible to fight them effectively. Sometimes even experienced furniture makers and restorers cannot do this. Therefore, it is better to prevent trouble- treat home furnishings with a protective compound. Today, manufacturers offer a variety of polishes and impregnations that can protect both polished and unpolished furniture wood from stains of various origins.
Most often these are compositions with natural beeswax and silicone, capable of forming a reliable, but thin and transparent film on the surface of the wood. After using them, the furniture not only does not lose its visual appeal, but also acquires a naturally fresh natural shine.