Removing Water Spots From Wood Furniture

Our dining room table has had a busy summer.   It was humid (for us) this year, and there were times when a glass of water overstayed its welcome on the wood, leaving a water spot.  These don't ever seem to go away on their own, but there is a fast and easy way to get rid them.

All you need is an iron, a thin piece of fabric, and a clean, dry table.  For my fabric, I chose a flour sack cloth, that, once I unfolded it, was a bit raggedy for blog photo purposes, but in reality, this is the cloth I use to iron out these water stains, so I decided to keep it real.

The cloth lets the heat pass through but keeps the iron gliding smoothly over the table.  I've always used a flour sack towel because it's thin and doesn't have texture...plus it's cotton, rather than a synthetic blend.  A synthetic blend would be a poor choice - do not use!

You need to set your iron for the hottest setting, but with no steam or water.  None.  Water or steam would defeat the purpose.

Open up your towel to a single layer, and if you're blogging, photograph the part of it that doesn't have purple flecks from a dye project, or an entire un-raveled hem.

Keep the iron moving, passing it over the water marks that are visible on the surface.  Take a photo that, later, reminds you that hand lotion really needs to become a habit.

You can lift the cloth and check the spots, re-ironing as necessary.  Here are before and after photos of one of the most obvious water stains:

before:

after:

Once the surface is sufficiently treated, you can oil or polish it (I did neither, because I had other things on my to-do list) for an even nicer shine.  Maybe I can get to that next week!