When Hubs filled a REALLY rustic oak wood top with almost more wood filler than wood, I knew Iβd have to come up with a solution on how to make wood filler look like wood grain. If you donβt want to hide all the rustic goodness of real wood, then stick around for how it looks now.
However, if you just want to learn how to fix veneer that is lifting, that post will give you all the details to prep a wood piece for paint.
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Oak Vintage Sewing Table Top
Hereβs the top weβre starting with. You might be saying to yourself βbut Sara, that wood looks perfectly fine!β But thatβs not oak; itβs a plastic laminate made to look like oak. And at this moment, thereβs hardly any glue keeping it on.
When Hubs lifts away the laminate, it reveals a REAL oak wood underneath. Yuck; itβs not in great shape. My gut instinct was to tell Hubs we should just re-glue the laminate back on and then leave it or paint it. At least weβd have a perfectly flat and flawless surface to start with. But Hubs wasnβt having any of that! He had his heart set on rustic and authentic oak. So on to a new adventure; real oak it is!
I went inside and left Hubs to finish removing the laminate. What I didnβt realize until much later is that underneath the rest of the laminate, the previous upcycler put a kajillion scratches into the oak to get the laminate to bond better. Obviously it didnβt help because it popped right off without any effort! I guess those scratches will make this piece even more rustic.
Note that if all you have are a few scratches, you should read our post on how to fix scratches on wood floors. Itβs a quick fix and the same principles apply (useΒ Floor Repair MarkersΒ or you can also buy a complete kit).
After sanding and filling with wood filler, hereβs one of the worst pieces. Just so you get a good idea of what weβre dealing with here. Does your wood furniture look more like polka dots after filling all the holes too? Pretty challenging eh? Well, itβs not going to be a disaster for long! Itβs nice to have more options that painting right over the wood.
How do you Hide Wood Filler?
Can you stain wood filler? Yes. But it will show. Actually hiding wood filler is easier said than done.Β Unless you build your project from scratch and have left over saw dust to create your own, wood filler is not stainable. At least not to the degree that it wonβt stick out like a sore thumb after staining. No matter what stain you use, itβs never going to blend in seamlessly.
So, if you come across a wood filler product on the market that sayβs itβs stainable, donβt believe the hype. Many wood fillers claims to be stainable, but if you look at reviews, lack of stain-ability is the biggest complaint. Thatβs not to say they are not good products for filling!
Stainable or not, a two part filler is what youβll want for a furniture project like weβre working on here (weβll get to the filler we use in the next section)!Β Once the filler is sanded, remove all sanding dust and get ready to stain.
What did I get myself into?Β Truth be told, Hubs is an expert at furniture refinishing and could whip this off in a minute. However I wanted to see if I could pull this off so I can pass my learning on to you! If I can do it, you can do it too!
Weβre using an oil stain by Minwax (Early American 230).Β
Hereβs the progression of our piece during staining. You can see that the stain hardly makes any difference over the wood filler!
Before we get into how to hide wood filler, letβs discuss what we actually use for wood with a LOT of damage like this old vintage sewing table.
Wood Fillers are Not Created Equal
* [If youβre looking for some of the things we use, weβve got you covered (disclosure): Clicking on the affiliate links in this post means we may receive a commission. But donβt worry, you donβt pay a cent more and it helps us make more unique crafts to share with you! Thanks for helping to support our blog!]
Whatβs the best wood filler? There are plenty of products you can find to fill small dings. But since weβre talking extensive damage, you really need a two part product for deep fills and missing chunks of wood.
For this project, weβre actually using Minwax High Performance Wood Filler. From our experience, itβs the best wood filler for painting so you can fool people into thinking the wood grain is actually there when it isnβt.

Minwax wood filler: best wood filler for painting
If you can get Minwax, great! However, this one from Varathane is similar. A two part filler is ideal for filling chunks taken out of edges β and especially corners, and big patches. It will stand up to bumps and wonβt easily fall out.
For smaller dings, we swear by Famowood. Both the Minxwax and Famwood wood filler products dry without shrinkage. And thatβs important because a product that doesnβt shrink only has to be applied once β saving you time.
You can also use straight up Bondo like my friend Denise at Salvaged Inspirations. She will take you though a comparison of wood filler vs. regular Bondo, so you can understand the differences of each type of filler.
How to Make Wood Filler Look Like Wood Grain
Regardless of what two-part filler you actually use to fill your wood, to hide it youβll need:
- Artist brushes
- Low Odor Paint or Lacquer thinner
- Universal tints (I used burnt umber, raw sienna, burnt sienna and black β but it will all depend on the wood and stain youβre matching)
- Glass jar
- Plastic lid
- Clear shellac
Pour lacquer thinner into a glass jar. Put dabs of universal tint into a plastic lid. I used burnt umber (a reddish-brown), raw sienna (yellow), burnt sienna (red) and black.
Hereβs our piece after the stain is dry. You can really notice the scratches now.

Wood filler after stain
Dip the paint brush into some lacquer thinner and blend it with universal tint to create your first colour. You want to build up thin layers of transparent colour. In all honesty, most of Hubs universal tints were dried up. But the lacquer thinner not only helps with the layering, in this case it dissolved enough of the dried tints that I could use them.
How to Hand Paint Wood Grain
If you want to test how your paint will look before applying it, put a piece of glass right over the wood and dab the paint right onto the glass. Youβll be able to see through the glass to the wood tone below to better judge if the paint will work.
Iβm starting with lighter tones. I apply it in stripes to mimic the wood grain.
Then I progressively work my way to darker colours to fill in. Imitate both the colour of the wood and graining as best you can and keep layering until youβre happy with the look.Β You can apply each individual colour to all areas at once or do one section at a time. I did a little of both.
The thing to keep in mind as youβre hand painting in the woodgrain is that the areas over the filler will darken up once the sanding sealer (shellac) is applied. The lacquer thinner added to the tints dries very quickly, but when youβre working with them wet, youβll see how well the colours are blending into the wood.
In its βdryβ state, your hand painted patches may not look βrightβ.

Wood filler after painting wood grain
Wood Filler Before and After
Shellac Sealer
But hereβs how the oak wood looks now with a coat of clear shellac sealer over top. Shellac does a great job of cohesively blending all the patches into the wood. Of course, if you stare at it hard enough, you can see your touch-ups. But when Hubs took the top to seal it then brought it back inside after a few days, I really had to look hard to find where I did my wood graining. He told me that would happen, but I was surprised nonetheless!
Itβs like night and day from bare wood filler!
Hereβs an overview of the entire oak top now. Honestly, there were too many patches to count but Hubs got the rustic charm he was looking for. And I learned a new skillset!
As much as Hubs is thrilled with how the oak top turned out, Iβm still going to embellish it with a stencil and paint. Thatβs another reason for using clear shellac as the top coat. It will block any tannins in the oak from bleeding through the light colour chalk paint weβll be using.

How to make wood filler look like wood
Weβll share the complete reveal of this vintage sewing table in an upcoming post (see how to stencil without bleed). If youβre curious to see what we did with an almost identical piece, check out our Singer Sewing Table MakeoverΒ and this Hudsonβs Bay Point Blanket Inspired UpcycleΒ (with its cool IKEA hack). As a matter of fact, if youβre wondering what you can do with an old sewing table, check out all our sewing table ideas.Β Thereβs bound to be one that inspires you!
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Wood Filler FAQs
Whatβs the best wood filler for painting?
A two part wood filler will be more durable on edges, but a one part system will work fine on areas that donβt get a lot or use or abuse.
Can you stain wood filler?
Yes, you can stain wood filler, but it will never match the colour of the surround wood because it takes stain differently and will show that difference. See the instructions above to paint wood filler to look like wood grain.
Here I go again with The Repair Shop references but I recently saw Will do this technique and was astonished with the results. So Iβm thrilled to see your tutorial Sara because you cover the nitty gritty details and products to get the finish!
You know I love the repair shop too, but I always wish they would go into more detail on how they do things and the products they use. But I really do enjoy seeing the before and afters and all the work that goes into each piece. Iβll bet Will goes through gallons of shellac :).
Right! So many times I hit the rewind button just so I can get a sneak peek at the products they are using but most often the containers are turned backwards. Yup, besides shellac Will must go through gallons of mineral spirits too. π
i do that too! But you are right β they are really good at hiding those labels lol!
You are a magician. This looks terrific.
All it took is a wave of the magic wand lol! Thanks Alys!
Oh my word. Thatβs brilliant. There have been so many gorgeous pieces in the thrift store that got left behind because I just could figure out how to fix them using wood filler. You and hubby are a life saver, Sara. Thank you.
Glad we could expand your upcycle horizons Michelle!
I need this because I had some damage to a chair daringly move and have to use filler wood, so this will come in handy.
I can remember my mom having to do this when we were young and our new puppy gnawed on the leg of her new sofa. She wasnβt even phased β she just fixed it.
Great tutorial Sara, I will remember this one for next time. I would have pulled the whole lot off if it was mine. Not any more.
Whoever originally put the plastic laminate on top of the wood actually did a very good job. We could have re-glued it back down and it would have been a great surface to sew on once again. But aesthetically pleasing won out lol!
Can I use oil paint instead of the universal tints?
Sure, I donβt see why not.