How to repair the finish of a table that something has eaten away at?

My moms nice dining room table must've gotten some nail polish remover on it and it has eaten away at the dark color finish. Is there anything I can do to repair it a bit?How to repair the finish of a table that something has eaten away at?
No. Sorry. Without having to refinish the whole table,there is really nothing you can do. Because of the layers of polyurethane,or varnish or shellac, you will be able to see it always. You can ,if you have one,go to Lowe's and get those tiny sample packets of stain. You can put it on the table,but like I said without doing the whole table you will always see it. Do however use the dark stain on it so it will be less noticeable.How to repair the finish of a table that something has eaten away at?
the polish has ate through the clear coat as well. it t was first. now it is eating the stained finish. get a soap and warm water and whipe it down. then get a similar color dark marker and some clear glose. that should do the trick
There is nothing like a baby sitter to destroy furniture with fingernail polish. That happen to me, but since I do furniture refinishing, I fixed it the next day.



It is all in what you know and what you are capable of doing. Depending upon the age of your mothers table, it might be finished with either shellac or lacquer. Both are pretty easy to repair.



when I bought my best furniture, I also bought a gallon of stain of that color of the furniture.



I would suggest that if you want to do this yourself that you purchase a book on how to do it and practice it on a piece of junk furniture before you try the main piece of furniture in the house. It requires some finesse.



If the nail polish did not eat through the stain, it is not that much problem. You can get a clear lacquer in a spray can from a paint store

and mask off some around the damage and spray over it. the problem that most people have is that they spray too much. Just do light coats and lightly rub the whole area down with 0000 steel wool. Don't let over spray get on the table outside of the area where you are spraying.



First, however, determine what the finish is. I doubt that many that were bought 20 years ago were finished with varnish. However, in todays world they may have used a water based polyurethane. Polyurethane can be a pain in the butt. to get anything to stick on it, you have to scratch it up too much. My thinking is that it has to be lacquer since it dries in minutes and eases the production speed.



Your best option, especially if this is a very good piece of furniture, is to call a repair man who does this kind of work. They are not cheap, but they are good.