Sometimes when I have an older wood item that’s starting to look a little worse for the wear with dried out wood and other spots, I don’t give up on it right away. I’ve learned that a quick homemade solution of just mayonnaise, lemon juice, and olive oil can work wonders to restore dry wood again. I have three examples to share that might inspire you to give this homemade dry wood remedy a try too!

The first step is to make your homemade wood restoration mixture. You can make this mixture in any size you wish, just use equal parts of each ingredient. I find that a good size batch is:

• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Then you just need to rub this mixture around on the item with dry wood and you should see improvement very quickly. Here are three of my projects using this mixture to give you inspiration.

Project #1 – Dry Wooden Table

The first project where I tried this mixture was a small wooden folding table. I used to use this table outside when my kids were small, often putting their bubble-blowing mixtures on it which often spilled and made messes. As you can see in the “Before” photo, this table saw some hard use! I’m still using this table (indoors now for holding photo backgrounds) and it looks much perked up again after a homemade wood restoration treatment.

Project #2 – Dry Wooden Basket

The next project is a small wooden basket that used to sit on our bathroom counter holding kleenex, toothbrushes, etc. But it would also frequently get water dripped or splashed on it which wore out the look of the wood as time went by. But after rubbing in some of my homemade wood restoration treatment, I was so pleased to see that it almost looked like new again.

Project #3 – Dry Wood Handles on Knives

And finally, a gave this mixture a try on some knives where the wooden handles had not been treated with care and were looking very dried out. Once again, there was a very obvious improvement when I was done.

So there are a few of my projects to inspire you to give this DIY wood restoration a try. My experience is that you really have nothing to lose, especially if you were about to throw the dried piece out anyway, and everything to gain if this mixture revives it again. You can always test it out on a small area first if you have any concerns.

One more thing to note is that this mixture does not last forever. After several months go by, you might see that your piece could use another treatment. But it only takes a few minutes of your time to be rewarded with an item that will look almost like new again.