Wood furniture care and maintenance usually include dusting, cleaning, polishing, or waxing to allow your furniture to last long and look its best. A good piece of wooden furniture adds beauty and elevates the visual quality of your home or office. Good news is that natural wood doesn't need much maintenance. However, the better you treat your wood furniture, resin wood, and live edge tables, the longer they will last. The most important furniture care protection tip is that you should dust and shine your wood furniture regularly. However, if you wonder how should you exactly do it, what are the best methods of furniture care, and how can you keep different types of wood look their best for years to come, read our expert tips. Bear in mind that wood care and maintenance will most often depend on the finish of the piece. To avoid damaging the finish and stop a dark film on your precious pieces from building up, simply follow our furniture care and maintenance steps. Here are the daily and periodical, deep cleaning wood furniture care and maintenance tips you've been looking for.
Dusting, cleaning, applying paste wax, and occasional deep cleaning are all the necessary steps in wood furniture care protection you need to be aware of. If you've just purchased a new piece of furniture, it's best to ask for specific care and cleaning guidelines.
Dusting your wood furniture is the first step in furniture care that you shouldn't skip. Airborne deposits build up in a filmy layer on your wood pieces and can scratch their surface. Frequent dusting will remove these airborne deposits and stop filmy layers of dust to build up. When dusting, you can use various tools. Treated cloths, classic feather dusters, soft, lint-free cloths, terry towels, and lamb's wool dusters are all great for dusting wooden furniture. The most important is they are clean and soft. They will easily and effectively remove dust. However, dust may scatter into the air and dry cloth can cause dust to make microscopic scratches on the wood. This is why you will want to dampen your cleaning cloth slightly and prevent this
For optimal furniture care, always use a soft cloth for cleaning. If you do not clean your furniture properly, dust can scratch the surface of the wood. It is best to never clean your furniture with a dry cloth, as this can cause dust to make microscopic scratches on the wood. Only use furniture cleaning products.
Never use soap and water for cleaning wooden furniture. Water is not a friend of wood as it causes swelling of the wood and staining of your furniture. Never use a wet cloth for furniture dusting. If you notice any sticky spots on the surface of your wooden furniture, you may need to use soap and water. Go carefully about it. Dip the cloth in mild detergent dissolved in water. With cloth almost dry quickly wipe the area and immediately rinse and dry using a soft, clean cloth.
You will need to polish your table once a year to ensure that it shines like the first time it entered your home. Avoid silicone based polish products like Pledge because it can be absorbed by the natural wood over time and ruin your rustic table. Instead, find and use a hard carnauba wax. Polishing the table requires a little effort. Luckily, you only have to do it once per year. Wood furniture care and maintenance are actually pretty simple and straightforward. Start with dusting your furniture regularly with a piece of soft cloth in order to maintain its appearance and elegance. When cleaning your table, use soft cloth dipped in mild soap solution without perfumes or alcohol to wipe clean the surface. Due to the nature of the wood, your table will see little cracks over time. To retain its longevity, maintain relative humidity between 40% and 45%. When moving your table, please avoid dragging it. Instead, lift the table up and put it down slowly.
When it comes to caring and maintaining your resin wood tables and other furniture, feel free to apply all the above-listed steps. The most important thing in resin wood furniture care and maintenance is to keep their surface clean, especially in high traffic areas. Simply wiping down the table top in between busy periods on a daily basis will be crucial. Never use abrasive cleaning tools to clean your resin wood furniture. Resin is scratch resistant but it's not scratch proof and, at the same time, wood is neither. Take preventative steps to protect your resin wood tables and other furniture pieces:
Live edge wood tables are made from one-of-a-kind wood and expose the organic, natural shape of the tree. Uneven surface, pits, cracks, and knots are the features that make these tables unique and timeless. We enjoy them, appreciate them, and relish their exquisite singular look. However, maintaining and caring for the surface of live edge wood tables and other live edge furniture may present a challenge. It is not hard, you just need to know how to do it. Follow these tips to prolong the longevity of your live edge wood table, keep it functional and looking amazing for many years to come.
Never dry dust your live edge wood table as dust particles may scratch it. Use a soft, lint-free, slightly dampened microfiber cloth. These cloths are highly absorbent and will dust your live edge wood table surface without leaving streaks, marks, or scratches. Cracks and knots of live edge tables may retain dust and dirt deep in their creases. Using microfiber dusting cloths, you can get deep enough into these grooves and make them dust and dirt free. Even more easily, microfiber material will remove the dust off the table surface. Dust your live edge wood table regularly, if not often, to avoid collecting layers of dust as they can scratch the surface. This is a simple wood furniture care and maintenance process that assures a long life and gorgeous look for your live edge wood table.
Opting for natural cleaning products is always a great idea. Cleaning wood furniture with a mixture of water and vinegar is one of the simplest and most natural methods that is very effective. Vinegar is anti-bacterial and powerful in cleaning irregular surfaces. Process: Mix half a cup of white vinegar to half a gallon of warm water in a bucket. Dip soft cleaning cloth into the mixture and wring it thoroughly. The cloth should be damp, not soaked. Don't use more water than you have to because it can penetrate the wood and the finish of the table. To penetrate to the crevices, knots, and cracks, lightly push the cloth into the pits of the live edge wood table using your finger. Dip the cloth again into the mixture of water and vinegar again if needed, wring, and repeat the process. Once the table is clean, dry it using a dry, soft microfiber cloth. Cleaning wood furniture with olive oil and vinegar is another method that will keep your live edge wood table look like the first time you saw it. This natural mixture should be used as a natural wood furniture polish that will revitalize and renew wood, not more than once or twice a year. Before you try this process, you should test a small area of your table first. Process: Mix a quarter cup of olive oil and a quarter cup of white vinegar. Apply a small amount of the vinegar — olive oil mixture on a soft cloth to your wood table and buff its surface to a shine you desire. The olive oil will replenish wood moisture while vinegar will benefit the wood with its antibacterial traits.
If you decide to use industrial wood polish products for your live edge wood table, know that they can leave a residue that will over time fog your table's figured wood. This can affect the beautiful, organic look of rough, uneven edges that we love so much. Industrial wood polish will simply fill the knots and cracks and will be hard to take out after a while. Avoid this by polishing only the flat surface of your table and steer clear of knots, cracks, and pits.
Live edge wood tables are made from real, 100% wood slabs. Like any wood, they are also sensitive to high heat. Keep them away from high heat areas like radiators or open flame.
Like any other wood furniture, live edge wood tables don't like moisture and they won't be able to resist the moisture damages. If you use your live edge wood table in your living room or dining room, make sure to use coasters whenever you're entertaining your friends or family. Any accidental liquid spills clean immediately using a clean, soft cloth made of absorbent material. If moisture sits on the table surface, it can damage the finishing.