Finally tried that 'coffee grounds in shellac' trick on a beat-up oak dresser

I saw a guy at a local shop in Boise do it and thought it was just a messy hack. But after three tries on scrap wood, I mixed a tablespoon of fine grounds into a pint of fresh shellac and rubbed it into some deep dents. It filled them perfectly and stained the filler to match the old wood almost exactly. Has anyone else used something weird like this to fix old furniture?

3 comments

3 Comments

ericnguyen1mo ago

Wait, you used a whole tablespoon in just a pint, @masonm85?

masonm851mo ago

That "coffee grounds in shellac" trick is a perfect example. I love how the best fixes for old things are often just using other old, common stuff you already have.

skyler_lane837d ago

gonna disagree a little bit here. i get the appeal of using old junk, sure, but sometimes old stuff is old and busted for a reason. like coffee grounds in shellac, that sounds like a hack that someone came up with because they ran out of stain and didn't want to go to the store. not every old trick is actually good, some of them are just what people did when they had no other options. i've tried some of that "grandpa's wisdom" stuff and ended up redoing the whole job later. it's fine for a quick patch but if you want something that lasts, modern materials are usually way better. just my two cents but i think we romanticize the old ways too much sometimes.