The resilience and durability of wood have made it a fine and widely-used material for many furniture and sculptures. Wooden furniture pieces are known to create a cooling and relaxing effect around an ambience, that’s why homes, offices, restaurants, hotels and other hospitality venues always have wooden furniture in them.
Here at The Woodcarvers Haven, we offer well-made and high-quality wooden rocking horses and other wooden furniture pieces. We also provide furniture-making and woodcarving classes and tutorials to aspiring woodcarvers. As trusted makers and sellers of fine traditional rocking horse, cabinets, tables, frames and other wooden pieces, one of the ways we strongly employ to keep our products in excellent condition is making use of proper care and maintenance measures. We hope our clients will do the same—take care of any wooden piece they get from us so it can last and serve them longer.
Maintaining and caring for wooden furniture isn’t rocket science. You can do it well on your own. Here are some useful tips to help you take care of your precious wooden pieces.
Cleaning and polishing:
Dust particles and other dirt are minute but once they accumulate and develop into thick layers, they can cause unpleasant marks and scratches on wooden surfaces and make furniture look dull. Keep your wooden furniture stain-free and shiny through proper cleaning and polishing.
- Dust your wooden furniture regularly (at least once a day) to keep dusts and other airborne particles away.
- Use soft dusters or any soft cloth to avoid scratching the finish.
- Dampen the cloth to be used for wiping so dust won’t float into the air then land back to the furniture. The cloth must not be too wet as water may absorb through the furniture’s finishing, but it should be moist enough for dust and dirt to cling to it.
- You can add a mild detergent soap to water. Make sure to rinse it after wiping.
- When wiping, check if the side of the cloth directly in contact with the furniture has accumulated enough dirt so you can fold it and use the cleaner side to continue.
- Make sure to wash the cloth thoroughly after using so you can use it again for cleaning.
- After wiping your wooden furniture with damp cloth, wipe it with clean dry cloth since excess in moisture can cause damage to wood especially when they absorb deep.
- Proper polishing keeps the lustre in wooden furniture. Dusting and wiping won’t be enough to keep them shiny and lustrous. Choose the right polish that most suit the furniture’s finishing (e.g., if the wood has oil finishing, just re-apply oil after dusting; wax polish are mostly used for newer finishing). Pick those that have good quality and are chemical-free.
- ALWAYS dust and clean first before polishing.
Storage and placement:
- Keep wooden furniture away from direct sunlight. Harmful UV rays from the sun can cause the wood’s protective finishing to crack or wear out fast and can bleach wood. Prefer putting weather proof outdoor furniture in your outdoor hangouts, patios, lawns or gardens instead of wooden pieces.
- Control the amount of humidity in the room through proper use of air conditioners and dehumidifiers. Wood must maintain the right amount of moisture to remain in good condition.
- Use drapes, blinds or awnings if you have wooden furniture pieces that unavoidably get hit by sunlight in certain times of the day.
- Keep wooden pieces away from heat-producing objects (e.g., fireplaces, stoves, heaters, electronic appliances, etc.) since frequent exposure to heat can cause the furniture to eventually crack and split due to excessive dryness that cause shrinking of wood.
- Don’t drag wooden cabinets, chairs or tables when moving them. Dragging won’t just hurt the furniture’s base but will also cause heavy scratches on your floor.
- In lifting heavy wooden furniture, make sure to get enough help or else you may topple over, hurt yourself and damage the furniture. Don’t just hold the upper handles upon lifting. Grasp the lower base instead for better support.
Covering and protection:
- If you are using a wooden dining or working table, make sure to put place mats, coasters and glass, plastic or cloth covering to protect it from excessive moisture and fluctuating temperatures from hot dishes, mugs and glasses with hot or cold liquid, electronics that produce heat, etc.
- Plastic coverings are not very suitable for wood since their prints can leach on wood after a period of time. Prefer using cloth and glass covers.
- Avoid placing solvents or strong chemicals on wooden surface because they can damage a furniture’s finish and can cause further reactions that can result to more damages.
At The Woodcarvers Haven, we treat wood not as a business asset, but as a treasure onto which we can etch wonderful art and offer them to our dear clients. We value our wooden pieces as living beings that beautify spaces and are worthy of careful treatment.