If you found a used coffee table or piece of furniture you love, but you’re not infatuated with the patchwork of cigarette burns, there may still be hope for repair and revival. The same procedures that can save a tortured designer furnishing may also save your vinyl floor that suffered from the burning exuberance of your last celebratory party.
Wood is wonderful. It’s durable and sandable – and sanding is your saving grace. If you have a cigarette burn in wood that you’re trying to conquer, you’ll need paint and varnish remover, sandpaper (or steel wool, depending on the wood), finishing paint or stain, and varnish. The hardest part will be matching colors. (If you were considering restaining or repainting your furniture – now is the time.)
Carefully remove the paint over the cigarette burn with paint and varnish remover. Let it sit a little while to let the chemicals do their work. After the paint is removed and cleaned up, sand down the area so the cigarette burn hole is less noticeable. Then, paint or stain your matching (or new) color, and varnish the area to protect it.
If the cigarette burn is on Formica, fiberglass or vinyl, use powder cleanser like Comet or Ajax (scouring powder) to remove the discoloring. After cleaning the cleanser, simply use an automotive polishing compound to get back the original shine. In a worst-case scenario, you might just have to patch an area with a new piece, or a piece stolen from an inconspicuous area of the same material. (You can probably get away with removing vinyl tiling in a closet or a snippet of Formica or fiberglass from under a tabletop or under a seat of a chair.)
It takes some work to get rid of those nasty burns, but you don’t have to pass up an intriguing piece of furniture, and you don’t need to re-tile your kitchen floor every time you have a party. Enjoy life, and enjoy a home without having to look at cigarette burns.