Here’s How I Saved My Chair and Rug From Spilled Candle Wax
I’ve been working hard on updating my kitchen and dining room lately. I recently bought, for example, these gorgeous light pink upholstered dining chairs . The whole point of this endeavor was to make this place as cozy and peaceful as possible, so last night I decided to enjoy the fruits of all that labor and light some candles. Guess what happened? Yes, I dropped wax on one of the new chairs. For a moment my emotions were the opposite of comfort and calm. But then I remembered that it is quite possible – and even easy – to remove candle wax from soft surfaces. Here’s what to do if this horror ever befalls you.
Remove candle wax stains with alcohol
I started Googling furiously to determine the best method for my circumstances, assuming that baking soda or isopropyl alcohol would be needed to counteract the wax’s oiliness, but I needed to be sure. I was right about the alcohol, which made me feel smug.
If the wax is still wet when you find it, wait until it hardens so you can easily scrape off the top layer and only deal with the oily stain underneath. If the stain is particularly large, this may take a while, but you can speed up the process by taking something frozen from the freezer, putting it in a plastic bag and placing it on top of the wax to cool. I tried using a dull butter knife to scrape the wax off the chair cushion, but it wasn’t very effective; the blade was too thick. I hate to say it, but I just used my fingernail to scrape all the hard wax off the surface and it worked great.
After that, I left the stain itself and began blotting with a mixture of half water and half isopropyl alcohol. The vast majority of spots disappeared immediately. I let it air dry and did it again which removed even more. I didn’t want to wipe over and over again without giving it time to dry because I didn’t want the pad underneath the fabric to get wet. I left it overnight and this morning I discovered there was a light white layer left, so I mixed two drops of laundry soap with about 1/4 cup of water and then blotted it onto the film. The chair looked like nothing had happened to it.
Remove wax from carpet with a hairdryer
While frantically Googling what to do with my upholstery, I came across a tip that said I could use a hair dryer to remove wax from the surfaces. I often use a hair dryer around the house to remove sticky stickers or gel-based stains from surfaces, but I haven’t been convinced to use it to melt wax deeper into a chair pad. However, I have seen it useful for removing wax from carpeting, especially shagier ones.
Feeling confident that I had conquered the wax on the chair, this morning I deliberately dribbled it onto the carpet in the name of research . I placed some frozen food in a plastic bag and placed it on top to test the method of quickly hardening the wax and confirm that it worked fine. I then melted the wax with a hairdryer and tried to pull it out of the carpet. On my hands it was 1. unpleasant and 2. not particularly effective. I repeated the experiment with a wide-tooth comb and, surprisingly, the wax came out immediately, clumping on the bristles. After that I messed around with a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and water for a bit and then used the hairdryer again just to dry it all off. The carpet showed no signs of having been sprayed with candle wax. The last step should be to clean the carpet as usual, just to remove any remaining alcohol.
Since alcohol is a non-polar solvent, it dissolves oil, making it ideal when it comes to dirt. If anything, this is the MVP of this entire experiment and will quickly eliminate any candle-related problems you encounter in your quest for coziness.