With pretty natural patterning and numerous shades of colors, wooden furniture is like bringing a tiny bit of nature into your property. Additionally, quality wooden furniture can survive for generations with an nearly unchanged appearance. The payment for this type of quality is the requirement of regular maintenance.

Regular care

There are a couple rules, which can be applied to all kinds of wooden furniture. The most important one is easy – wood dislikes humidity. Use a dry gentle cloth or the brush connector on your vacuum and avoid the use a wet cloth. Promptly remove all spills and do whatever is required to keep the furniture dry. Only ever locate furniture in rooms that have a reasonably constant temperature and where the humidity is neither high nor low. Shy away from locating your wooden furniture next to any heating source.

After humidity, sunlight is another big adversary of wood. Color fading in wood is normally induced by exposure to nonstop sunlight. Lasting damage can be caused over a length of time. Avoid putting hot objects on wood, such as coffee cups, candles and other such items as this can damage the wood instantly. Protection in the form of cork mats is something that your need to buy – avoid mats made of plastic and rubber substances as these can damage the surface. The mats are not only to place under your cup of coffee, but also under a vase or other hard objects which may scratch the surface.

Lets explore the different types of finishes

Different types of wood need specific care for that reason we need to find out what type of finish your furniture has. Usually, we can categorize three basic types of finishing – soft (oiled), hard (polyurethane, varnish, shellac or lacquer) or painted. By far the most effortless to see is painted wood, but you will need to look at little closer to determine the finish of the other types of wood.

Luckily, there is a straightforward test to help you: Lightly rub few drops of linseed into the surface (naturally, choose some discreet spot). If it is soaked up, the surface is oiled. If the wood doesnt absorb the linseed then try a little drop of acetone. While polyurethane sheds acetone like water, lacquer disintegrates in seconds. If the finish turns tacky then you can ascertain it is a varnish or shellac. If you want to tell the difference between these two finishes, use a few drops of alcohol – shellac reacts much quicker.

In our next article about wood furniture maintenance we will have a closer look at the different types of finishes.