do candles burn wood varnish fumes?
Smelly compounds can be destroyed by free radicals wich are formed by a burning candle. But you need a lot of candles for your apartment.
Candles were also used in bathrooms (after toilet visits) to destroy smelly compounds like $\ce{H2S, CH3-SH, CH3-S-CH3}$ ...

A better and safer way is it too use cyclodextrin. This compound absorbs molecules and destroys them as well. Cyclodextrin is the working stuff inside the air-improvement sprays.