Keeping your furniture clean, dry, away from direct sunlight and knowing how and what to polish with will help to prolong the life of your items.

There are some good home remedies to help, and there are some D.I.Y touch-up products* on the market as well. Always read and follow product instructions.

• Vaseline can be used to remove white marks left from a hot pizza box, or coffee cup. The white mark is a result of moisture being trapped under the clear

  finish, a liberal amount of Vaseline spread on top will help to draw out the moisture, remove Vaseline with a soft cloth and use furniture polish afterwards. This is usually very effective if done quickly. If the marks don’t go away to your satisfaction a repair or refinishing will fix it up!

• For light surface scratches a touch up pen can be used and can be found usually at a hardware store or

  online.

  *Always read how to dispose of these products. They are not landfill friendly and throwing in trash could be

  dangerous..

  

•  Furniture polish and a soft rag is all you need to maintain  types of finishes like shellacs, varnishes, lacquer and urethane . However, these finishes CAN be scratched and create a need for repair.

• Oiling these types of finishes won’t harm them per se, but it’s not always the best course for long term care. The oil will in most cases attract dust and give it some place to stick. Again, not terribly harmful—it’s just making more work on you!

  On older antiques one common practice was to apply stain and wax on a finish. These are very beautiful and timeless looking finishes. It’s our advice to do what’s necessary to preserve such beauty and continue the same process of hand waxing these types of finishes. On the other hand moisture rings and scratches will happen more frequently if not careful, but these, too, can be fixed and it’s a joy to see the results of old world finishes restored.

  For more email or call us.