Know Everything About Seven Simple Steps To Make Your Furniture Last
Long Enough To Become Heirlooms
People love
furniture, heirloom
furniture is simply wood and glue but still it is a really
personal thing. Somehow, a little bit of the different people who
have owned it and the craftsmen who throughout the years have been
entrusted with the care of the item lives on in the piece. Furniture
can last for hundreds of years. It can bridge time and carry forward
a family legacy that otherwise would be lost. Sometimes the most well
meaning people inadvertently cause, or allow unnecessary wear and
damage to occur. In this brief treatment we will lay out seven of
some of the most common accidents and abuses that all too often
people learn the hard way.
Pay heed and
you will be one of the wise ones who have learned from someone else's mistakes.
1. Some things
need no explanation, and this is one. When a client arrives at our
shop with a chair in the back seat of their car, a leg sticking up
and visible through the rear window as we walk across the parking lot
to take a look, it is painfully obvious from 50 feet away. Puppies!
Yes Puppies, they are babies you know, baby dogs, and just like baby
humans they teethe. The question is not if they will teethe it is
when, so be extra careful to keep puppy and furniture under
surveillance during this toothy time.
2. Almost as
sad as the puppy problem is Teen girls. Well not the girls really,
but their nail polish, and especially that bad nail polish cohort,
nail polish remover.
It happens, my
phone rings, and on the other end of the line is an obviously
terrified almost adult female asking for the magic potion that will
replace the finish on the top of Moms beautiful cherry dining table
before she gets home from the store. The nail polish remover stripped
the finish off clean down to the wood in an area that is "not
really that big". Don't do your nails on any finished, painted
or stained furniture, oh yea don't think that if you put news paper
down that that will somehow eliminate the problem, it will not. The
newspaper will become glued to the top and that is no better.
3. Hot melt
glue is not your friend; as a matter of fact it's not really even
glue. It is okay for arts and craft projects but not for furniture
re-gluing so don't use it on any furniture item you don't wish to defile.
4. This one
seems like a good idea at the time, but later you will discover an
entirely new and better problem. I refer to metal mending plates,
angle brackets and any other metal bridging device. Wood is an active
medium, meaning it expands and contracts with changes in humidity and
metal does not. The differences in expansion will provide a practical
example of hydraulic power as the metal restrains the wood's
expansion till the wood pulls its self-apart. Don't use mending plates.
5. I love
plants; my wife wins a beautification award almost every year for her
gardening. But more furniture than one can count has been ruined or
severely damaged when the plants get over watered and leak on the
wooden tops of people's furniture. Use a plate or tray or consider a
glass top for really well used surfaces then you won't have to worry
about that.
6. Similar to
the problem with plants is sun damage. You probably wouldn't notice
for a long time if there were no accessories on the top because it
would fade evenly. The sun's ultraviolet light is a powerful force
that absolutely will fade the finish color and break down the topcoat.
Rotate
accessories on a regular basis to eliminate having an outline of the
item permanently burned into the top and limit direct sunlight as
much as possible.
7. Finally
here's one most people never think of till it is too late, don't
overload your drawers and cabinets. Just because a certain amount of
stuff will fit in a drawer, that doesn't mean the drawer will hold up
under all that weight. Drawers are for towels and sheets, shirts and
pants. Keep the bowling balls and boat motors on the heavy-duty
steel-shelving unit in the garage.
That's it, the
seven most common repairs and good advice on how to completely avoid
the problems, Remember, love your heirloom
furniture, and it will love you back long after you have gone on
to that big mansion decorating project in the sky. |
