DIY natural wood polish will not only save you money, but also help keep your home looking great without the use of caustic chemicals. Most if not all of the ingredients needed to make these natural wood cleaner recipes are likely already sitting in a cabinet on your homestead.
I have used just straight mineral oil to clean wood for years, since making the switch from Pledge and Murphy’s Oil type products. It works really well, but the surface of the wood remains tacky for quite a while after an application – no matter how hard you rub it in.
During my quest to find a better, yet still natural wood polish, I came across three recipes that work really well on any type of wood – and cost only a few dimes to make.
DIY Wood Polish Recipe #1
Ingredients
- ¼ cup distilled white vinegar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 7 drop lemon or orange essential oil
Instructions
- Pour distilled white vinegar and olive oil into a spray bottle or bowl.
- Add a few drops of essential oil.
- Shake the bottle or stir the ingredients briskly in the bowl.
Spray the above mixture onto the wood and rub the mixture in with a cotton cloth – or dip a cloth into the mixture and rub into the grain of the wood.
DIY Wood Polish Recipe #2
Ingredients
- ¼ cup liquified coconut oil
- 4 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
- 3 drops lemon essential oil or 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
Instructions
- Pour all of the ingredients into a bowl or squirt bottle.
- Apply with a cloth or squirt the mixture onto the wood.
- Rub the DIY wood polish in with a cotton cloth as part of a weekly or monthly cleaning routine.
DIY Wood Polish Recipe #3
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon vegetable glycerin
- 1 tablespoon lavender essential oil
- ½ cup distilled white vinegar
- 8 drops lemon, orange, or lavender essential oil
Instructions
- Pour all of the ingredients into a spray bottle or a deep bowl.
- Shake the bottle vigorously after closing, or stir the ingredients in the bowl vigorously.
- Squirt the mixture onto the wood or use a cloth to dab it on, and then rub it in.
Let’s Put the Wood Polish to the Test!
I made a half batch of natural wood polish recipe #1 and #2 for the test. The amount I made would fill a red SOLO cup about half way full.
The screen left side of the liquor cabinet door was naturally polished with the distilled white vinegar, olive oil, and lemon essential oil recipe. It gave a wonderful shine that it still holds, but took longer to dry than the screen right door panel. The right side of the liquor cabinet was polished with the distilled white vinegar, coconut oil, and lemon essential oil recipe.
Personally, I prefer the screen right panel. Even though it is not as glossy as the left, a lot more of the wood grain is now highlighted. I believe I get better results when I leave the coconut oil in a state halfway between a solid and a liquid instead of using a pure liquid version of the oil as the recipe recommends.
Once the liquor cabinet door dried completely, the screen left side was still more shiny, but a bit more of the wood grain was picked up.
The bottom portion of the liquor cabinet doors did not receive any of the DIY natural wood polish.
To show you how far that little bit of DIY natural wood polish went (took me less than 2 minutes to mix up) I will share some photos of my kitchen.
I used the coconut oil based natural wood polish on this section of my kitchen – the bottom and top cabinet doors, the counter top, backsplash, the small window, the microwave stand countertop, my kitchen table and chair tops, the rest of the liquor cabinet, as well as a small wood table in the living room.
I used the olive oil based natural wood polish on the smaller section of cabinets and countertops on the other side of my kitchen.
Even though this part of the kitchen provided a smaller surface to polish, the olive oil based recipe was all gone by the time I was done.
Because I like the results of the coconut oil based natural wood polish slightly more than the olive oil and it goes more than twice as far, I believe it is what I will be mixing up to clean my woodwork, cabinetry, and furniture from now on.
You can also use this natural wood polish on cutting boards, wood decor, and even real hardwood floors. Because it contains vinegar, you get the added bonus of naturally disinfecting the wood in your home you polish.
Depending on what brand of essential oils you purchase, each of these three wood polish recipes should only cost about $1 to make, enough of to do a typical living room full of furniture.
Tara lives on a 56 acres farm in the Appalachian Mountains, where she faces homesteading and farming challenges every single day. her homesteading skills are unmatched, she raises chickens, goats, horses, a wide variety of vegetables, not to mention she’s an expert is all sorts of homesteading skills such as hide tanning, doll making, tree tapping and many, many more.
I’ve got something much better. Your great-grandmother would have told you to use linseed/flaxseed oil which works better than anything.