Experiment: mayonnaise to treat water stains

I bought a solid wood table with a little drawer at a flea market for $30. It does a fine job of holding up a lamp in the parlor, but it needs some work. The top has water stains and dried-out wood with fine cracks, and the sides have some sort of peeling varnish. But the size is perfect and it's very sturdy.

I'd heard that mayonnaise can remove water stains. Since this table was not a big investment and couldn't really look much worse, I had nothing to lose. Plus I was making coleslaw yesterday so the mayo was already out. Some for the cabbage, some for the table.

I smeared mayonnaise on the worst of the stained areas. Then I figured what the heck, and spread it all over the table stop.


I wiped it all off after 1 1/2 hours and the difference was pretty amazing. The table had turned a deep, rich red-brown, the cracks were less noticeable, and most of the shallow water spots were gone. A few of the deeper marks were left, so I applied more mayo to those and covered them with paper towels to keep the mayo from drying out, then let it sit overnight.


This morning I wiped it all off with paper towels. The table felt very slightly oily, like after you first put on hand lotion, so I wiped it with a water and vinegar mixture which removed the oily feel. Check out the pre-mayo and post-mayo pictures.


Pretty impressive. The deepest water marks still show a little, but it's a vast improvement!

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