Wohnraumgestaltung
Restauranteinrichtung
HoteleinrichtungCare guide
Care
Looking after solid wood
Solid wood is not a finished object. It keeps moving with the seasons, it takes on colour, and it forgives more than most materials. Here is what it asks of you, and what it does not need at all.
Every day
A dry cloth, and very little else
Dust with a soft dry cloth, following the grain. For a stubborn mark, use a cloth wrung out in lukewarm water and dry the surface immediately afterwards. Wood and standing water are a bad combination: the problem is never the wipe, it is the minute the water is left sitting.
- Lift, do not drag. Dragging a loaded cabinet racks the joints and scars the floor.
- Use coasters and felt pads. A warm mug leaves a white ring within minutes on a lacquered top.
- Turn accessories every few months. A vase left in one spot leaves a lighter patch as the wood around it ages.
Never
What actually damages it
- All-purpose cleaner, bleach, ammonia or alcohol. They strip the finish, and a stripped patch cannot be spot repaired invisibly.
- Silicone furniture polish. It builds a film that later refuses any oil or lacquer, so a future repair means sanding the whole panel.
- Microfibre used dry on a lacquered surface. It burnishes and leaves fine swirl marks under raking light.
- Direct sun on one half of a top. The exposed half lightens or ambers within a season and the line never fully evens out.
- Underfloor heating running directly beneath a solid panel, or a radiator within twenty centimetres. Dry heat from below is what causes shrinkage cracks.
By finish
Not every piece wants the same thing
| Finish | Routine | Every 12 to 24 months |
|---|---|---|
| Painted mahogany | Dry cloth. Damp cloth plus immediate drying for marks. | Nothing. Touch up chips with the matching paint only. |
| Oiled oak | Dry cloth. Neutral soap in water for grease. | Re-oil with a hard wax oil. This is the finish that rewards maintenance most. |
| Lacquered oak | Dry cloth. Never abrasive, never microfibre dry. | Nothing. Lacquer is a closed film; adding oil only leaves a sticky residue. |
| Untreated or limed | Dry brush along the grain. | Ask us first. The wrong product closes the pores and changes the colour permanently. |
The room
Between 40 and 60 percent
That is the humidity range in which solid wood is stable. Below it, panels shrink and hairline gaps open at the joints. Above it, drawers swell and start to bind. Both are reversible, and both are avoided by a cheap hygrometer and a humidifier in the weeks when the heating runs hardest.
Expect it
Movement is not a defect
A fine seasonal line at a joint, a door that sits a millimetre differently in February than in August, a top that is not perfectly flat to a straightedge: that is solid wood behaving as it should. Veneer and board do not do this, and that is exactly why they do not last as long.
Small repairs
Most damage is fixable at home
- A dent in unlacquered wood. A damp cloth and a warm iron, briefly, will often steam the fibres back up. Work in short bursts and let it dry fully.
- A white ring from a warm cup. That is moisture trapped in the finish, not a stain. Gentle warmth from a hairdryer at a distance usually draws it out.
- A chip in paint. Touch up with the matching paint on a fine brush, in thin layers, letting each dry. One thick layer always reads as a repair.
- A loose handle. Tighten by hand, never with a drill. Overtightening strips the thread in the wood and that is a real repair.