Weekend Projects

This Weekend: Fix Up Your Favorite Wood Furniture

Written by

Adrienne BreauxHouse Tour Director at AT Media
Adrienne BreauxHouse Tour Director at AT Media
For more than 10 years, I've led Apartment Therapy's real home content, producing thousands of house tours from around the world. Currently, I live in my maximalist dream home in New Orleans, Louisiana, with my partner, a perfect dog, and a cute cat.
updated Apr 14, 2019
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
Post Image
(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
(Image credit: Leanne Bertram)

Wood is one of the most common — and delightful — materials to make furniture out of. When you add wooden furniture to your home, it warms up rooms, adds style and helps support your stuff with its sturdiness. But since it rarely complains, we sometimes take it for granted. Wood furniture needs attention from time to time to look and function its best, though. This weekend, spend a little time fixing up your favorite furniture pieces made of wood.

This Weekend’s Assignment:

Shine, polish, repair and better your favorite wood furniture pieces in your home

You might have a lot of wooden pieces in your home, since so many different types of furniture are made out of this versatile material. From bed frames to tables to bookcases to credenzas to chairs and more, choose your favorite piece or two, or some pieces that could use a little extra love.

If you don’t have a lot of skills, you might consider not tackling the repair of a family heirloom or very expensive furniture piece. But small repairs on moderately priced furniture pieces can be worth trying yourself. After you choose which pieces you want to fix up, you’re going to want to examine each piece carefully to figure out what it needs to get back to looking like new.

(Image credit: Nasozi Kakembo)

First, thoroughly clean your piece. Depending on what kind of finish is on your piece, you might just want to dust it, or you might want to use a damp rag and a gentle cleanser. As you clean, you’ll want to make a mental list of what needs fixing up. Are there any chips or loose parts that need to be re-affixed to the piece? Any scratches or dents that could be filled in or smoothed over? Is the finish dull and needs polishing, or perhaps totally sanded off and redone?

→ Some helpful links:

Using the links above for help, repair your furniture piece to the best of your abilities. Then tackle the finish. Next, think about what you can do to protect your piece in the future (either a fresh finish or something as simple as a new set of coasters sprinkled throughout your space).

(Image credit: Carolyn Purnell)

Remember, as with all of our Weekend Projects, just do what you have the time and energy to do! Even just dusting and polishing a couple of wood furniture pieces will make your rooms feel a little bit better — you don’t have to refinish every piece in your space to make a big impact!

(Image credit: Jaime Kowal)


AND WE WANT TO SEE YOUR WEEKEND WORK! Share your tips and photos of your Weekend Project work on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag
#atweekendproject.

Find all of our Weekend Projects in one convenient place.