Over time, your Ikea furniture can go from looking brand new and amazing to beat up and sad. Did you know that Mohawk makes a paint touch-up repair kit specifically designed to restore Ikea furniture to looking brand new again? Keep reading to find out how well this furniture touch-up paint works!
Got Ikea furniture? If you are like – oh, the rest of the country – chances are you have at least something from Ikea (if you don’t, you’re seriously missing out). We are NO exception. I love everything Ikea!
Not necessarily for the same reason that most people love Ikea: the prices.
Sure, the prices are pretty awesome, too. I DO love that. But no, I LOVE Ikea because they sell SERIOUSLY the BEST cinnamon rolls on the planet.
Didn’t expect that did you?
Back to Ikea’s furniture.
I dare say that since almost all of us have lived with some piece of Ikea furniture at some point in our lifetime – be it your childhood desk or a sofa in college, we all sooner or later find out it’s hard to furnish a home without having at least something from Ikea.
The Teeny Problem with Ikea (or Any) Furniture
Over time, from moving, buying used, and even just general use, Ikea furniture (ANY furniture) is bound to get banged up. I don’t know about you, but looking at those nicks and dings doesn’t look lovingly worn-in to me – it looks terrible.
Especially when you buy a used piece and want it to feel “new” to you.
By the way, if you LOVE IKEA, then grab this list of 25 IKEA must-have items for a stylish home on a budget! These are my favorite IKEA products. Many of them can be used in amazing, outside-the-box ways, too.
The top 25 IKEA products list is free, just click here, or on the picture below to begin⤵️:
One thing that’s always been tough about Ikea, however, is that the finishes on their stuff are pretty unique. The faux-wood, laminate-y, glossy finishes…the not-so-standard colors they use…things like “black-brown”…these oddities can make repairing Ikea stuff REALLY difficult.
Until now!
Today, I’m going to share an Ikea paint touch-up repair kit with you that will help fix those annoying scratches, nicks, and dings that all furniture seems to get after a while.
This furniture touch-up paint repair kit is made specifically to work with Ikea paint and furniture.
Ikea Paint Touch Up Made Easy With the Mohawk 3 in 1 Repair Stick
By now you guys may be aware that we are a THRIFTY household. And in a thrifty household, do you know what’s even better than Ikea prices?
Ikea prices SECOND-HAND. Yep, we have been known to purchase Ikea furniture from Craigslist, or local Facebook garage sale sites. Many times. And that means we spend even less!
Unfortunately, the flip-side of spending less is that these items have been loved much more. Love that shows up as extra scratches, nicks, and dings.
Mohawk has come to our rescue by developing a new product called the 3-in-1 repair stick.
Mohawk 3 in 1 Repair / Paint Touch Up Stick Colors
Currently, you can buy it in 15 colors, with more hitting the market soon. Mohawk developed this product line specifically with Ikea furniture in mind.
Right now, you can find the Mohawk repair stick in these colors:
- Black
- Brown
- White
- Walnut
- Cherry
- Light grey
- True white
- White stain
- Golden oak
- Perfect Brown
- Natural
- Honey
- Red Mahogany
- Caramel
- Dark Grey
Mohawk told us that the colors were formulated to work perfectly with Ikea products, so we were excited to get them in the mail so we could give them a try.
We received our Mohawk touch-up kit at the perfect time. We had just purchased bunches of secondhand Ikea storage units for a closet renovation we were working on.
I decided to really test this product on a used Komplement shelf (that goes with the Ikea Pax collection). I took it a step further by making the shelf even more used via the help of a hammer, a chain, and a power drill driver and screw.
Before the tutorial (and revealing the results), let’s go over what you’ll need for this repair project:
For This Paint Touch Up DIY Project You’ll Need
- Mohawk 3-in-1 repair stick in chosen color (for the items shown in this post, we used the “white” and “white stain” versions – it is also currently available in “black” and “brown”
- High-grit (around 220-ish) sandpaper ONLY as necessary, and used sparingly
And make sure you grab this list of 25 awesome IKEA products to help you create a stylish home on a budget! Click here or enter your email on that form right below⤵️
How to Use the Mohawk 3-in-1 Repair Kit to Touch Up Ikea Paint
In case you’d rather read than watching the tutorial in video form, let me just go over the basic steps you’ll need to follow in order to use this product.
1. Clean Your Items
Gotta start with a clean surface to get the best results. Clean of dust, dirt, grime, etc.
And that was the only time-consuming part of this DIY project for me! This child’s chair of ours had a good inch of nastiness on it before I started. Trust me, I realize what this says about the level of cleanliness in our home…
2. Use Fil-Stik to Fill any Nicks or Dings
If your surface defect(s) have any depth at all, you’ll want to fill those with the Fil-Stik. That’s the portion that looks like a crayon. and don’t be light-handed with this part.
Seriously, really push that Fil-Stik material into those gaps and cracks.
3. Use Leveler Cap
Once you’ve filled in any surface defects, put the cap back on your Fil-Stik. The cap has a leveler on it.
Use this like you would a squeegee on a windshield. You’re trying to smooth the surface of your furniture. Run your fingertips over the top of the area after it appears level. If you feel any bumpiness, continue to level it until the surface feels perfectly smooth and level.
4. Use You Paint Touch Up Marker
The marker tip is the last step in the repair process.
Note: Shake the repair stick vigorously before uncapping the marker.
Once shaken, with the marker tip pointing toward the ceiling, depress the “nib” or tip of the marker to release any gases. Then, turn the marker tip downward and fully depress the nib onto a folded, clean paper towel. This will get the marker’s paint flowing.
Once you see the paint on the tip of the marker/paint on the paper towel, it’s ready to use.
A Small Word of Caution About the Mohawk Ikea Paint Touch Up Kit
A little bit of this paint goes a long way.
And, I’d recommend “painting” a small amount onto your piece, then allowing the paint to cure/dry for at least 15 minutes before applying more.
At first, just like with regular wall paint, you will be able to see the paint on the surface of your furniture, but as it dries, it should match your furniture more closely.
Paint Touch Up Results
Ready to see how this repair stick works on a white Ikea “Komplement” shelf?
Mohawk 3-in-1 Repair Stick Paint Touch Up Video Tutorial
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I mention in the video (above) that we tried both the white and white stain sticks on this Komplement shelf. For this shelf, the “white stain” was a fantastic match. The “white” is a bit warmer in tone.
The image below shows the results on the shelf, with the product dried. You can’t even see anything for the white stain.
However, if you look hard, the white does have a bit of a cream/yellow tinge.
But we didn’t stop with just testing this repair stick out on one Ikea item.
The IKEA Gulliver Chair
I wanted to see how it would fare on this “Gulliver” chair that’s pretty much an Ikea heirloom at this point. This thing has been around for at least a decade…and I feel like that’s a pretty long lifespan for an item that originally cost $10, wouldn’t you agree?
And this chair has DEFINITELY seen better days.
But, it’s still a sturdy, well-used piece of furniture, so certainly worth saving and just sprucing up a bit.
Using the same technique as described and shown in the video, we fixed up this chair. And you can see the results for yourself!
For this piece, we found the “white” finish to be a better match. You can use multiple sticks to get the best coloring. For instance, mixing the black and brown sticks will work great for those black-brown Ikea items.
Here are a couple more before and after pics of our Ikea Gulliver chair:
Now truth be told, if I would have spent a little more time on this chair, I am sure the paint touch-up results could have been even better.
But, I only invested a whopping 15 minutes on this fix. And I’d say the Ikea repair stick results are really awesome!
Here’s a picture of the chair legs:
Good, huh?! All in all, based on my experience using the Mohawk 3 in 1 repair stick, I’d say this affordable product is SUPER easy to use and will provide some really great results for fixing the nicks and dings you have on any of your Ikea pieces at home.
PLUS, these 3 in 1 repair sticks will work on ANY of your furniture…not just Ikea stuff. BONUS!
Final Thoughts on My Paint Touch Up Project With the Mohawk 3 in 1 Repair Stick
What a simple way to extend the life of some already super affordable furniture! That’s music to my Macklemore and Ryan Lewis ala “Thrift Shop” loving-ears. You know the reference?
I’ll paraphrase the gist of the song, without the expletives…why the heck should we spend more $$ on things like furniture when we don’t need to?
Especially for those of us that are still in school, or move a lot, or have small kids.
Why not buy super affordable furniture, and with the help of this simple repair stick, keep it up and running and looking good for as long as humanly possible? This paint touch-up kit makes buying Ikea furniture used an even more attractive proposition, right?
I will definitely be using the Mohawk 3-in-1 repair stick for all my future Ikea (and other) furniture touch-up needs, and I hope it helps you restore your Ikea furniture to its previous glory too!
Like they say in that awesome song… “we’re “savin’ my money and I’m hella happy that’s a bargain,” (we’ll skip the word at the end…you guys get the point). Catch ya later, gators.
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Pin this Ikea paint touch-up post for later! And if you do this project yourself, leave a comment (or better yet, a photo) on the pin! That helps others know whether they want to try this project, too!
Don’t leave empty-handed! Grab your free copy of our “25 Best IKEA Buys For A Stylish Home On A Budget” list! It’s the next best thing to an IKEA cinnamon roll (and if you haven’t tried one of those, you are missing one of life’s biggest joys)!
Jasmine helphinstine says
How did the repairs hold up over time?
Heather says
Hi Jasmine! Great question! Really, really well! They look no different now than on the day I repaired them, so I’d call that a win!
"L" says
Do you recommend Black 3-in-1 stick or Brown for Ikea’s Black-brown stained furniture?
Heather says
You may need to use a little of both, honestly.
Vince Quarizzo says
Where do you get it from, I can’t find anyone stocking it
Heather says
Hi Vince, I linked to it in the post. Amazon sells them: https://amzn.to/2NxXGkC