6 Best DIY Natural Wood Polish Recipes

DIY natural wood polish will not only save you money, but also help keep your home looking great without the use of caustic chemicals. Did you know that the vast majority of commercial furniture polish products on the market not only release a haze of aerosol fumes but also aren’t always safe to use around kids and pets? Let’s skip that, shall we?

These DIY recipes will work wonders on your wooden furniture and wooden floors, and you only need them in small amounts for the purpose.

Plus, 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 condition 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 these recipes that work really well on any type of wood – and cost only a few dimes to make.

Notes on the Ingredients

Olive Oil

Even though the first recipe using olive oil is recommended by a Gov’t website, it’s not without issues. Other websites advise against using it on wood polish (here and here), so maybe don’t use it to wipe your wooden surfaces ever single time.

The reason is, olive oil is a non-drying oil, but it does go rancid. It can leave surfaces smelling like old cardboard or old glue. That doesn’t mean you’ll notice the same thing on yours, but you should be aware of it.

Jojoba Oil

This is a better choice than both olive and coconut oil because it doesn’t go rancid.

Vinegar

Vinegar is excellent at cutting through grease and other build-up, even through old polish. Plus, it adds extra shine, so the oil you’ll use alongside it won’t be the only reason for that.

One thing that vinegar doesn’t do is disinfect. You may see this claim every now and then, but the fact of the matter is, it can’t. Sure, it may remove some bacteria, but vinegar is only 5% acetic acid, and you need at least 70% alcohol to reliably disinfect.

Essential Oils

These are included simply to make the furniture smell nice. You can choose any scent you want, it won’t make a difference, just be sure not to abuse it. 20 to 30 drops per cup should do it.

#1. Basic Vinegar and Olive Oil Wood Polish Recipe

This one is actually recommended by L.A. County. Since it has vinegar in it, I recommend you use it on a monthly basis, not weekly. Notice it doesn’t call for any essential oils to make it smell nice… something you can add yourself if you want to.

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup distilled white vinegar
• ¾ cup olive oil

Simply add everything into a spray bottle, shake well, and you are ready to apply it! Spray the mixture onto the wood and rub it in with a cotton cloth – or dip a cloth into the mixture and rub into the grain of the wood.

#2. Coconut Oil and White Vinegar Recipe

• 1/4 cup liquified coconut oil
• 4 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 6 drops lemon essential oil

Instructions

1. Pour all of the ingredients into a bowl or squirt bottle.
2. Apply with a cloth or squirt the mixture onto the wood.
3. Rub the wood polish in with a cotton cloth as part of a monthly cleaning routine.

#3. Jojoba Oil and Vinegar Wood Polish Recipe

If you’re looking for a homemade furniture polish that polishes while adding a natural protective coating to the wood surface, jojoba oil is the way to go.

Unlike using a cup of olive oil, using jojoba oil instead is better because it is a wax, not an oil (a liquid wax ester to be precise). This means that unlike olive oil, it doesn’t go rancid over time, making it a better choice than olive oil. It’s also not as greasy but rest assured it dos a great job at protecting wood surface.

So you won’t have that greasy residue when you wipe and you definitely won’t have any residue or an excess layer of gunk left behind. Here’s how to make it.

#4. DIY Wood Polish Recipe with Lemon Juice

In this furniture polish recipe, you’ll use whole lemons (you can also use an equal part lemon juice), but I find that whole lemons are more effective to give your furniture the luster you’ve been looking for! Here’s the recipe to follow.

#5. Beeswax And Olive Oil Wood Polish Recipe

This natural homemade polish reminds me so much of Pine Sol it’s not even funny! If you’re looking for something that delivers all the bang for your store bought buck – but without having to actually buy wood polish at the store – I recommend this recipe that has sweet scents of pine. You can also sub out cedar oil if you’d like instead.

One note though – if you have pets, avoid using this essential oil recipe, since pine (along with other essential oils like eucalyptus, sweet birch, peppermint, and orange oil aren’t always safe for them when consumed). Here’s a recipe.

#6. Beeswax and Mineral Oil Wood Polish Recipe

Beeswax is another great ingredient to consider using when it comes to making homemade cleaning products and wood furniture polish recipes.

Here is one of my favorite natural furniture polish recipes to use. It is also great on wood floors! This one has just two ingredients and takes less than 15 minutes to make.

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 #1). 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 (Recipe #2).

Personally, I prefer the screen on the right panel. Even though it’s 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.

Depending on what brand of essential oils you purchase, each of these three wood polish recipes should only cost about $1.5 to make, enough to do a typical living room full of furniture.