ᐅ Which materials are useful for repairing Malm furniture?

Hello everyone, I bought an old Malm chest of drawers from Ikea and am currently repairing some minor damages. I’m particularly interested in which materials work best for furniture repair on Malm pieces—especially when it comes to filling scratches, fixing worn edges, and repairing loose drawer fronts. Are there specific fillers, wood putties, or adhesives you would recommend? Also, what type of surface treatment is best to preserve the original appearance as closely as possible? I look forward to your experiences and tips!

When repairing Malm furniture, careful adjustment is especially important: most Malm components are made of particleboard with a thin foil or melamine coating. For scratches and damaged areas, I recommend special repair wax sticks or acrylic-based wood fillers, which can be sanded after drying and then retouched with matching furniture markers. Adhesive should ideally be a solvent-free assembly glue to avoid damaging the foil. It is important to work the material as cleanly as possible to prevent warping or lifting of the foil.

For scratched edges, wood veneer edge bands are suitable and can be easily ironed on or glued. For loose drawer fronts, a strong wood glue or a clear assembly adhesive can help. The surface can be repaired directly using furniture touch-up markers in matching colors.

I recently had problems with a Malm dresser where the drawer front was loose. It might be due to the material: since Malm is semi-plastic coated, regular wood glues sometimes don’t bond well. Based on your tips here, I’m going to try using construction adhesive, as I’m concerned that wood glue might not be ideal for this. Thanks for explaining these details so thoroughly, it helps reduce some of my frustration 🙂

For additional information: A two-component polyester filler is suitable for surface imperfections, as it adheres very well and can be sanded smoothly. It is important that the surface of Malm-style furniture is thoroughly cleaned before application. Water-based wood filler may be less durable on coated surfaces because they are not porous. Furniture repair sticks or wax pastes are mainly cosmetic; the filler provides a stable repair.

I would like to add that you should be very careful when sanding: the melamine film surface is thin, and if you sand too deeply, the particleboard underneath will become visible, making repairs more difficult. It is recommended to use fine sandpaper (at least grit 240) and to work gently.