I have a lovely wooden charcuterie board on my kitchen island. It was an anniversary gift from my sweetie a few years ago and I love it! It sits on my kitchen island and it’s one of my favorite spots to create seasonal vignettes. I’m constantly changing it up with seasonal accents, freshly baked goodies and fresh flowers or greenery.
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The other day when I changed out the water in the white pitcher I found a dark water ring in the wood underneath the pitcher.
Oh no!!! Is my beautiful alder wood charcuterie board ruined? It’s one of my favorite decor pieces so I had to find a way to fix this.
I talked to my bestie Veronica and she recommended using mayonnaise to remove the stain. I had nothing to lose. So I decided to give it a try.
Using an old rag I rubbed a generous layer of mayonnaise onto the water ring.
I let it sit for about 30 minutes, so the mayonnaise had time to soak into the wood.
Then I wiped it off. But the ring was still there…nooooooo!
Time to step it up. I next tried rubbing it out with steel wool and some mineral oil.
Be sure to rub with the grain of the wood.
After several minutes of rubbing, the ring still wasn’t coming off. The stain was well below the surface of the wood. I realized I had to use sandpaper to get down below the surface of the wood. I started with a 220 grit sandpaper.
It took several minutes of rubbing but I was finally able to get rid of some of the water ring. I continued by sanding with a 400 grit wet/dry super fine sandpaper.
After sanding for several more minutes the ring was finally almost completely gone.
I allowed the wood to dry completely for a few hours. I then sealed the wood with a layer of wax. I applied the wax in a thin even layer rubbing it into the grain of the wood. I then buffed it off with a clean rag until I had a nice soft sheen. The wax brought out the rich color and the beautiful grain of the wood. I was finally able to get rid of the water ring completely.
The verdict? NO!!! Mayonnaise was a big fat FAIL! It did not work for me at all. What did work was using sandpaper and a whole lot of elbow grease. The final step of applying a layer of wax and buffing the piece restored it to it’s former rich beautiful luster.
Mayonnaise may work if the water ring has not penetrated below the upper surface of the wood or if the wood has a protective polyurethane finish, but it did not work on bare wood where the damage had seeped down below the surface of the wood. Just good old fashioned elbow grease was what did the trick for me.
My recommendation? Use a coaster, problem solved, no ring to worry about, LOL! Actually, I would start with mayonnaise to see if it works. If the ring is on the surface, you might get lucky and it may do the trick for you. If that isn’t working, try sanding with mineral oil and steel wool. Move on to sandpaper as a last resort. If you are working with an unfinished surface seal it with a layer of wax and buff off the excess to seal it and give it a soft sheen and protective finish.
Did You Try This?
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