This post was originally published on August 25, 2020.
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It’s inevitable. It’ll happen. You can count on it. A scratch will mark up your beautifully stained hardwood floors.
I suppose if the floor is old enough and has enough marks from years of being lived on, dents and scratches and nicks can become really charming. I’m thinking of reeeeaaallly ooollldd floors, though. The kind of wood floor boards you’d find if you were to go to a centuries-old abode in, like, England. I bet there are homes here in New England that can boast some of those types of floors, too, though.
However, what do you do when your floors are not hundreds of years old? What if they’re not even a century old? And what do you do if your floors are pretty freshly redone, beautiful, and you just moved in? And then the stuff happened.
An unassuming guest slid a dining room chair, that was otherwise carefully centered on the rug, across the bare floor. Eeek!
Or, you just didn’t realize that you needed those soft pads that you can stick to the bottom of your chair legs to prevent just such scrapes from marking up pristine floors.
Well, there’s a way to hide these imperfections that come with living beautifully imperfect lives with beautifully imperfect people! Phew!
You can find wood stain markers at your local hardware store and Home Depot and Lowes. For this floor, I used the Minwax marker and crayon in the dark walnut color. My brother suggested the crayon because it’s actually a wax that fills in deeper gouges in wood. It’s a lot easier to “fix” these deeper kinds of imperfections than coming back in and replacing boards!
I chose the deep walnut color and, I’ve gotta say, I am pleased as punch with how it came out! You seriously cannot tell that there was a scratch. I can, but that’s because I know where to look and I’m ok with being the only one who knows.
To administer the stain, as per the instructions, I first lightly depressed the marker bit on a paper towel, to get the stain going. Then, I dabbed the part that needed repair and wiped away the excess with another paper towel. Repeat for each area.
There were these two deep gouges near the basement door. The first time I saw them I was honestly saddened for my friend, this being her brand new house and her brand new floors.
In this case, it was the perfect application for the crayon. The wax would fill in those deep dents.
I first used the marker to hide the raw oak and dabbed the excess away. I then worked the crayon tip into the crevices. I then layered a little bit more of the marker stain on top of the crayon and then repeated with the crayon. And while the fix isn’t precisely perfect, you can’t tell from five feet up. And if you’d never seen the, uh, boo-boo, you wouldn’t be any the wiser that it was there to begin with. That seems like a win in my book. Fingers crossed it’s also a win in the homeowner’s book!
Now, shhh, don’t tell the homeowner! I’m waiting to see if she’ll say anything.
