Wood furniture requires some special attention to keep it looking new. You can’t set a drink down on it without a coaster. You approach your table with a delicate touch to avoid making scratches or scuffs. But even if you operate with an abundance of caution, you'll end up with inevitable wear and tear.
There are a lot of solutions available to restore your wood to its former glory. Severe cases should be left to the professionals, but the internet is full of hacks to refinish your furniture. You can buy wood markers, wood filler, and even entire art sets to replicate the original stain. But many DIYers swear by repairing your scuffed wood with... food.
Yes, you read that right—ingredients like nuts and mayonnaise are some people’s secrets to smooth and shiny wood surfaces. The oils found in these foods are believed to fill and mask unsightly scratches and stains. For mayonnaise in particular, Better Homes and Gardens reveals that the oil works to "displace the moisture in a water ring and remedy any cloudy residue in the finish of wood furniture."
And the best part? You likely already have these ingredients in your kitchen, so you don’t have to go out of your way to buy supplies.
But there are some caveats. First, it only works on real, finished wood (not laminate or painted wood). And while these ingredients are allegedly very effective, they’re not miracles. Deep scratches require more intensive repair than a jar of mayo can achieve.
Even with their limitations, the mayonnaise and nut hacks seemed too good to be true. So I decided to test it on wood scratches and stains at home to see how well they work.
My guinea pig was a wooden side table that has never seen a coaster. The water damage covered almost the entire surface, so I divided it in half with a piece of tape and tried one of the hacks on each side.
On the right half I used pecans, but I’ve also read that similarly oily nuts like walnuts and macadamia nuts work well too. It takes a bit of elbow grease to distribute the oil into the wood. It does get easier with time as the friction warms the fat and makes it more spreadable.
It's important to note that the nuts will crumble—a lot. So you’ll need to keep several pecans (or the nut of your choice) on deck to do the job. And keep your broom at the ready for when you’re done.
On the other side, I used a clean kitchen towel to rub a few teaspoons of mayonnaise thoroughly into the wood. Some DIYers recommend leaving the surface of the wood coated in mayo for several hours or even overnight to let the oils penetrate the material. But I was able to get the job done in just a few minutes.
Side by side, the difference between the two methods is almost indistinguishable. It’s not a permanent fix (especially considering the extent of the damage in my case), but it does effectively mask the appearance of those unsightly water stains.
If I were to recommend one over the other, however, I’d opt for the nuts. Both methods are admittedly pretty messy, but something about rubbing mayo on my furniture is just slightly unsettling. There are more ingredients at play (some of which are perishable) that don’t necessarily contribute to the hack’s overall purpose. And, most importantly, it doesn't smell like mayonnaise.
A nut, on the other hand, is just one ingredient. And depending on the nut you use and the furniture you’re repairing, they could both come from the same tree! This is one DIY hack that I can definitely co-sign.
