Get Dents Out Of Wood

I love my new home, I really do, but I'm not so fond of the massive amount of hardwood.  Between the kids and the dog, the poor floor is already looking a bit banged up.

Last week the floor received a good size dent. The culprit?  Me.  I dropped a bowl and the edge of it landed just right (or wrong, depending on how you look at it)

So I decided to find the bright side and realized I could finally try out a pin I had seen a long time ago about getting dents out of wood.

Get Dents Out Of Wood
You Will Need:
An iron
Wet cloth or paper towel
Sad dented wood

Directions:
Wet the dent.  Apply a wet cloth or paper towel. With the iron on High apply the iron to the wet paper towel or cloth and make a circular motion, don't keep it in just one position as this might burn the surface of the towel. Make sure there is a lot of steam being generated. Do this for a few minutes and check your results. In my case I did this for about 3-5 minutes.

I followed the directions and checked the dent about every 30 seconds.  I was really worried about making things worse, but the wood seemed to be ok. And it was really cool to see the dent slowly getting smaller each time I looked. I ironed for about 4 minutes then I noticed that I was no longer getting results. 

 

It didn't fix the dent completely, but it did make a vast improvement.   It worked a lot better then I thought

The next day I noticed a dent in my coffee table.  I have no idea how it got there, but I was actually excited.  I had been wanting to try this method again on different wood.

I followed the same directions as before, ironing for about 4 minutes.  

Not only did it NOT work, but it left a lovely white arch where the iron was. 

The Verdict:  You know when a cleaning bottle says "test in a conspicuous place first?" That definitely applies to this situation.  If you decide to do this, be sure to test it in a hidden area first.

Update: A wonderful person posted the following comment: "That's because you got moisture trapped under the poly and didn't evaporate it fully around the outside of the iron where it was not as hot. You can get rid of the white fog (or lessen it at least) using a hairdryer. Be patient! It will take a long time holding it there."

I held the blow dryer on there for about 20 min and the white spot faded a lot.  Within 2 days the white mark was totally gone.  The dent remains, but at least I don't have a strange fog on there.  

Leather Cleaner

For the last few years our leather couches have been tucked away in a sitting area.  But with our new home they are out in the open, by the kitchen, with three little kids and a dog having full access to them.

Are you getting a mental picture of how gross they have become?

I bought some leather cleaner but wasn't very impressed with it, it didn't seem to work very well. Plus it had a warning label that pretty much said if my children come into contact with it then they will die a slow painful death.  So I made my own.

Homemade Leather Cleaner
You Will Need:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup regular vinegar
a spray bottle

Just mix the two ingredients together in your spray bottle and shake it well. Now you just have to spray the leather down and wipe it clean with a cotton cloth. Please note that this recipe is perfectly safe for regular leather but is it not designed to be used on suede.

I sprayed one section of the couch and wiped it all down.  Then I used the store bought leather cleaner on the section next to it to see how they compare.

The Verdict:  It was SO much better then the store bought.  The first thing I noticed was that the olive oil didn't clog up my bottle.  Which was a huge plus. 


Before. 

 After  The DIY is on the left and the store bought is on the right

Here is a list of how the DIY did better then the store bought;

It went farther.  The store bought kind was individual cloths and I had to use 2 of them for just that small section on the couch.

The DIY had the same shine as the store bought but it the shine lasted longer

There wasn't a reside left over

The DIY didn't just shine, it also got off all the gunk from the kids sticky hands and the dogs wet nose.