Choosing The Right Cleaning Solution For Wood Furniture

There's nothing like the beauty and command of wood furniture. There may be something chic or inexplicably cool about more modern materials such as metals or high-grade plastic, but there's also something about wood furniture that cannot be ignored. wood simply breathes grandness and charm and elegance rolled into one. Solid wood furniture, in particular, strikes us with such appeal that we almost always think they are everything we would want in furniture. In the home or office, wood is wood and nothing can pretty much substitute for the unmistakable air of class it exudes.

To keep wood furniture looking great though, we have to do our part in maintaining it. Some people may think wood is something that you can just wipe with a damp piece of cloth to get rid of stains or dust that may accumulate on it. This should not be the case, though. In fact, before you know what type of cleaning is required for wood, you have to make a few considerations. For the most part, you have to know what type of finish was made on that wood for you to determine what type of cleaning solution is good for it.

For example, the most basic thing you need to consider when deciding how to go about cleaning your wood furniture is to check if it is soft-finished or hard-finished. Soft-finished woods are those that are coated with oil while hard-finished woods have either a varnish or polyurethane coat. You can check this by applying a very small amount of linseed oil on the wood. If oil is absorbed, the wood is soft-finished. Otherwise, the wood is hard-finished. To know whether it's coated with polyurethane or varnish, apply denatured alcohol on the wood. If the alcohol absorbs quickly, then coat is made of varnish.

Once you know what type of finish your wood has, you can now shop for the right cleaning solution. You'd like to make sure though, that you actually get the right one as using the wrong one can cause permanent marks on your furniture. Also, you should never mix cleaning solutions, whether they are both for soft-finished or hard-finished or if you mix one type with the other. This can mean disaster for your wood, and while its quality will not be diminished, its beauty certainly will be. If you're simply unsure about the cleaning solution to get, do not hesitate to ask the store clerk. There is a right way to clean your wooden furniture, and there is no reason why you shouldn't do it that way.