• Wood is an incredibly versatile building material. It is strong, flexible, easy to work and beautiful. From clothing storage to comfortable seating, wood furniture can be found in almost every home in the world. Maintaining wood dressers is typically a simple task, involving regular cleaning, and making repairs when necessary.
  
  

Commercial Scratch Products

• Use a colored furniture polish to repair slight scratches in furniture surfaces. Choose a color that matches your furniture and rub polish on with a soft, lint-free cloth. Colored wax wood filler is sold in crayon-like sticks in almost any paint department. Choose the closest from a variety of colors and rub the waxy, colored putty into the scratch. Buff with a clean, lint-free cloth.
  
  For more exact color matching purchase an Exact Match wood touch-up kit. It uses a specially designed stain that can be matched to almost any wood finish. Visually match any finish with an Exact Match card, apply the activator with the included brush and apply the color to complete the repair.
  
  For scratches in painted furniture, use dap type caulking in a squeeze tube. Choose the appropriate color. Apply the caulk directly to the scratch and smooth the surface with a dampened finger.
  
  

Improvised Scratch Cover

• Shoe polish can cover up unsightly furniture scratches on the spur of the moment. Apply a light coat of polish in the closest color available with a soft, lint-free cloth. Crayons come in a wide variety of colors and can be used to repair stained finishes and painted wood pieces as well. Simply rub the crayon firmly on the surface and polish it in with a soft cloth. Acrylic paints can be mixed to an infinite variety of colors. Applied in layers, acrylic paint can be used to match any surface. Use a coat of clear nail polish over any of these products to match the gloss in the original finish.
  
  

Bigger Repairs

• Use bondo auto body filler to repair deep scratches in painted surfaces. Mix the two parts of the epoxy according to manufacturer's instructions, fill the scratch, let it dry, sand it smooth, then retouch the paint. Colored wood filler, such as "famowood" can be used to fill deeper scratches in stained surfaces. Fill the scratch, allow it to dry, sand it smooth and touch-up the finish with a commercial scratch product.