Maintaining your dining room furniture

By TOM

The following guide will help give you a better idea of how to look after your dining room furniture.

Dining room furniture, some families use it every night eating together. Others reserve it for when guests are over, or special occasions. Regardless of how much you use it. Dining room furniture is expensive and requires a good amount of care to maintain. Just like all wooden furniture, it's vulnerable to the slightest of damage.

Dust your table and chairs

This seems pretty obvious but it's very important to dust your wooden table and chairs regularly even if you don't think it really needs to be dusted, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Dust leaves tiny little scratches in the surface of your furniture due to being abrasive and if you let it build up too much, you'll really notice the wear and damage it leaves on the finish.

Make sure that when you're dusting your table and chairs you dust more than just the surface. You need to get the legs and crevices as well. It's easy to forget about these but they're just as important to remember to dust.

What you use to dust is a major factor as well. Don't use wet dust wipes as these can leave marks on the surface and cause more damage. You want to avoid using feather dusters as well, they don't catch all the dust and they can also cause little scratches just like the dust. Instead, use a dust cloth or mitt to wipe down your furniture. They're much more effective at picking up the dust and cleaning your furniture.

Avoiding Damage

A lot of the time, you can avoid your dining furniture getting damaged at all by just taking an extra moment to make sure you're not doing anything yourself to damage your furniture without realising.

The most common issue is scratches, these can be caused by almost anything from dust to dishes. We covered how to correctly dust your furniture earlier and that it should be done frequently. But there are other things too.

Always use placemats and pads alongside coasters for your drinks and plates. These can cause scratches on your table without you realising. You should use a table cloth as well to protect the finish of your furniture.

If you have a centre piece on your table or any flower pots, make sure to place these on felt or cork pads to ensure they don't leave any marks on the table. These pads should be replaced often as they will lose effectiveness over time.

Moisture is another thing that can cause a lot of damage. From humidity to a spill. It's all just as harmful.

Anything spilt on your table must be cleaned up as quick as possible. If not, you risk causing the wood to warp or for marks to be left. Coasters are needed to make sure you don't get any water rings on your table which again will cause warping and marks.

Anything hot on the table needs a placemat under it to absorb the heat and stop condensation building up.

Checking for damage

Your dining room furniture is always in danger of getting damaged. It's important to catch the damage as quick as you can and get it repaired before it has a chance to get worse.

Check the surface for scratches, cracks, gouges and water rings. These are common damages you can find on your table and chairs.

Don't forget to check the upholstery on your chairs as well. Check the seat pads for any wear and tear.

It takes very little of your time to check your furniture for damage and the sooner you find it the sooner you can get it repaired before the damage has chance to get worse.

Most of the time, any damage to your furniture can be fixed with ease. Homeserve's furniture technicians are experts at wood and cabinet repairs. The majority of the time repairs can be carried out from your home within less than an hour.

Each of our Technicians have been on training courses to enhance their skills with wooden furniture and only in major cases will your furniture need to be brought back to our workshop for repair.