How to Use Magic Markers to Touch Up the Paint on an Antique

Antique couch arm

An heirloom that has been in your family for ages definitely looks it with lots of scrapes and dings. Don’t fret. You don’t need to throw a big cloth over the thing, nor do you need to spend lots of cash refurbishing it. You can use magic markers to touch up the paint on an antique with amazing results.

Things You'll Need

• Markers
• Fine sandpaper
• Sealer (optional)

Instructions

1. Pick your marker type. Hardware stores sell markers made especially for touching up dings and chips in wood. Paint markers, sold at craft stores, also work wonders for restoration work. If all you’re stuck with are regular old markers, that will do, too, as long as they are permanent markers. Don’t use water-based, wash-off markers which will simply rub off.

2. Choose your colors. Pick at least two, even three, different colors in matching as closely as possible to the area you need to touch up. If your item is a brown wooden couch arm, pick a brown that matches as exactly as possible, a lighter shade of brown and a darker one or even a black.

3. Lightly sand the area. Very, very lightly rub the area with a very fine sandpaper. This will roughen the texture to help make the color stick.

4. Start with the shade that most closely matches and begin to dabble. Uncap the marker and make little dots in and around the area that needs the touch up.

5. Dab some more. Take the lighter and darker shades and make more little dots until the area is completely filled in.

Tips & Warnings

• You can spray with a protective sealer, such as polyurethane, if it’s an item that gets touched a lot, like that couch arm.

• If the area looks way to obvious, you can ding other areas of the antique with a screw driver so they, too, need touching up. This will give the item an overall shabby chic look. It may also bring the value down considerably, so apply this method with care.

• If your efforts look truly horrible, sand off your colors with the very fine sandpaper and start anew.

• If the antique happens to be a priceless painting, please don’t do this at home.

• Never take a marker and just glob color in the area that needs touching up. That’s going to be way too obvious. The trick is to blend by dabbling and lightly sanding.