Furniture Friend is a set of touch up markers that are designed to be able to help hide damaged areas on wooden furniture. It also has repair sticks that are meant to work on bigger scrapes and scratches. But how well does this work on actual furniture?
Overview
It can be very frustrating when you get a nice new piece of wood or wood laminate furniture, and the next thing you know it gets scratched or chipped and it doesn’t look as good as it did when you originally got it. Without replacing the entire unite it would be nice to have a way to repair it cheaply and easily. That’s the premise of these markers. But the last thing you want to do is make the original problem worse, which is a definite possibility if it doesn’t do a good job.
The Claim
The makers of Furniture Friend say that it’s very easy to use their product, you just use it like a marker to draw where it needs to go, and since they give you an assortment of colors you can color match it to the wood you have so that it looks right.
The Hype
We all like to save money, and if this can help to improve the appearance on a piece of furniture that would be quite expensive to have professionally repaired, it would definitely get the attention of those that are in this exact situation. The hype is really the ease of use due to the marker design, making it as easy as using a marker, which anyone can do.
The Cost
The total cost will come to $26 and you’ll end up getting two Furniture Friends kits. Having this many markers might be overkill, since you likely have one piece of furniture that you have in mind to use this on, and it’s only going to need one color, and will likely only need to be touched up once. It might be nice to have a backup, and to have all of the other colors in case other furniture needs it in the future, but it’s clearly one buy one get one offer where you really don’t need the second one.
The Commitment
The big draw to this is that you won’t have to commit to having your furniture professionally repaired, and you won’t have to replace it either. You will have to do the repairs yourself, but since it’s as easy as coloring in the spot with a marker it’s not much of a time eater and you should be done in no time.
Evaluation
At the end of the day they’re asking for $26 in exchange for some markers. But you’re also getting the filler sticks, which are nice for deep scratches and grooves. The main thing you’re getting here is the different colors so that you know you’ll be covered no matter what color wood you have. There are similar products to Furniture Friend, but this is the first time we’ve see such a range of colors to make sure that you will have one that matches.
When you’re trying to do a touch up job on your furniture, the last thing you want to do is make the problem worse. They say this dries in seconds, which is good if you get it right, but could cause a problem if you don’t accurately apply it, and need to wipe it off and start over again. You’ll be racing the clock if you get it wrong. Also, there’s just simply no need to make this a buy one get one, other than to inflate the price and make it so you’re paying a ton in shipping charges.
Final Furniture Friend Review
Furniture Friend is getting our Thumbs Down rating based on the feedback it’s been getting from users, the amount they’re charging for it, and the fact that they’re charging much more for shipping than they are for the actual product. To prove that you’re getting fooled by the pitch and the price for Furniture Friend, here’s a furniture touch up kit for less than $6 that gets good reviews. Why spend nearly four times as much on a product that doesn’t seem to have the same sort of peer-tested reviews?
Our Recommendation
The most you should have to pay for a product like this is $20 and that should include shipping, set up in a way that the product is $15 and the shipping is $5. There’s simply no way it costs $18 to ship a couple of packs of markers, and if you do decide to return these in the 30 day window you’ll only get $10 back, plus you’ll be out the cost of return shipping. They’ve designed it so they’re making a profit no matter how well the product performs, which is always a big red flag.
I agree, there is absolutely no need to spend more than just a few dollars on touch-up markers for your furniture. I have a set that I purchased at a local drugstore; I think it was CVS. It was a pack of three different shades of brown, and I use them routinely on all of my scratched furniture to hide the imperfections. They really do work, there is no doubt about that, but there is also no reason to get duped by products that are overpriced when there are other options that are very effective already available.
The bottom line to me is that good quality furniture is expensive and no matter how much time you spend on trying to maintain it, things happen. A product like this would be worth the money if it did what it claimed to do. However, according to the website recommendation and the comments, it is clear that this product is not the answer.
I have a confession: I’ve used permanent markers on a couple of my furniture pieces before. Honestly, they work great and nobody would ever know the difference. I would totally be interested in a tailor-made product for covering nicks and scratches, but definitely not at this cost. Like others have said, there are plenty of other options for much less. And for that reason, I’ll just stick with markers I can get from the dollar store.
Being that I have a four year old at home, my wooden furniture has a ton of scratches and scrapes. I’ve been on the lookout for a good wood repair product but haven’t been able to find one to my satisfaction. They either have bad reviews or are so expensive that I’m worried about wasting money if it turns out that they don’t work.
Like Kaila, I’m afraid to put something on my furniture that will just make it look worse. To me, having scratches in the wood is less unsightly than having an obviously botched touch up job.
I purchased the Furniture Friend as I have a really expensive dining room set. My table got a few scratches and I wanted to try to repair it so it didn’t lose the value. First, it doesn’t work. It didn’t match the wood of my table, then you could see the difference in the table and the color from the Furniture Fix. The price is outrageous. It’s easy to use, but if it doesn’t work, then why buy it. I wouldn’t recommend this as now I have a nice table with two different colors on the surface. You can go to the local hardware and get a better furniture touch up color for half the price that may actually match the wood.
I agree that this seems overpriced and not worth it. There are a lot of in store products that do the same thing, if not better, for a lesser price and no shipping.
Also, like you said, these are basically just markers, but I know you can use oils to naturally make your scratch look like the finished wood. It would probably work better because it doesn’t draw over the scratch, but fill it in with a natural looking finish. I think I also heard you can rub walnuts on a scratch, and the oil from the nut does the same thing. Something to look into.
I personally wouldn’t put something on my furniture unless I knew for sure it wouldn’t mess it up, and I don’t trust that these markers would match my colors perfectly, and you wouldn’t see it.
I totally agree with the website recommendation. They are truly making a profit no matte what the performance of the marker is. This is a turnoff straight away because there are cheaper markers on the market you can find at Home Depot or Loews or any hardware or DIY store. So I fail to recognize the value in spending 20 bucks on a product that may or may not do the job without any reviews on its actual performance by people using it. If someone could tell me something spectacular about it then there is a chance I will make the investment since I have quite a bit of wooden furniture that I keep around that gets scuffed by a certain hound I own.