how do I repair a dent in the wood of my new coffee table?

Question

My baby just put about six small dents in a nice coffee table. What is the solution in terms of repair. It looks bad so I will have to get rid of it if it cannot be slavaged.... What should I do?

Answer 1

Seriously repairing dents in wood is a difficult task. You would have to fill in the dents with a wood filler, sand the table down and refinish it to get it back to the way it started.

Children don't know better so it may even benefit you to keep it as is for a while.

Answer 2

What does the dent look like? Has the finish/color chipped away, or is it simply a dent? If the finish is chipped or gouged, you may be able to touch up those small areas with a stain marker (Minwax is one example) and make them far less noticeable. I'd then live with the coffee table as it is, and not worry about it. Your baby is probably going to do worse. You could choose to consider this "breaking in" the table. It's already damaged. Now you don't have to worry about it so much with her!

But if living with it isn't possible, and they are really dents, rather than chips, then you can try the following. But this is risky. It can damage the finish. But if your other choice is throwing the table away, why not try it? It really works.

With a thumb tack, puncture the finish three or four times in the bottom of the dent. Fill the dent with water. Leave it. If, after a day, the dent remains, cover the area with a wet cloth and VERY carefully touch the tip of a hot iron to the area of the cloth that covers the dent. Touch it until it steams. Then remove. Check the dent. Repeat immediately until the dent is gone. Let it dry a day. Touch up the finish as necessary (and it may not be necessary.) The easiest way to do this is to apply a quick coat of paste wax and buff to an even shine.

But if the finish turned white due to the water or steam, dont' use paste wax yet. Use a hair dryer first. Turn it on low/medium. Move it back and forth across the white area - could take a few minutes, but the white will disappear. Then paste wax to even out the sheen, if necessary.

I don't like the use of wood filler for this purpose. It shows up too much. Unless the dents are extremely tiny, don't use wood filler. And bondo? Caulk? Gasp!

Answer 3

Depending on the size and shape of the dent, you can sometimes fix it by wetting the area a little, giving it a few minutes to soak in, then placing it in the sun in a warm location or use a hair dryer on a low setting to heat the area a little and let the water make the grain swell back to the original size. You can also wet it a little and then use a heavy towel and a steam iron to try this but the risk to the finish is a lot greater. If it does not make it, you can attempt to make a color-matched filler by buying some filler products that are about the right color and mixing them a little to make something that is in the neighborhood of the grain of the original, then work that into the dent and perhaps re-apply a compatible clear finish over it to make the finishes more even between the patch and the wood. You can also just call a furniture repair specialist, but they can be pricey so it depends on how much the table cost vereus the cost to replace it. I cannot promise these will fix it, but these are what I have heard of and I would try them.

Answer 4

Wood Dent Repair

Answer 5

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Answer 6

This trick doesn't always work but sometimes you can heat up a small, wet rag (even just paper towel) in the microwave and then immediately apply the hot rag to the dented wood. If the finish is thin, there's a chance that the hot humidity (steam) from the rag will be absorbed by the wood and the dents will swell back up--as long as the fibers have not been broken. Old furniture with a shellac finish will turn white from water so test in an inconspicuous spot first. It's worth a try...

Answer 7

you could use wood putty to fill them and then paint or restain it or you could try sanding it a bit, then get it moist to raise the grain, resand then paint or restain. like the others said, it's likely the baby will do more damage, you could just cover the table with a nice runner when people are over and just let it be the baby's table the rest of the time!

Answer 8

go to the store and buy some wood filler. Also if you have scratches in the table too, walmart has a wood pen to take the mark away a little so that they can be less visible

Answer 9

Use spackle and than sand it down smooth once it is dry..than re-finish it with the same color stain as the rest of the table. Won't look perfect but it will repair the damage and make it less noticeable.

Answer 10

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