Saturday, January 8, 2011

Keeping Your Living Room Furniture Clean and Looking New

Keeping Your Living Room Furniture Clean and Looking New

Cleaning Tips For Your Living Room Furniture

Buying living room furniture is a big investment that requires a lot of search time and preparation. Daily use can have a great impact on the longevity and look of your furniture, and you want to make sure you properly care for it in order to extend its use for as long as possible. Here are some great cleaning tips to keep your furniture looking as fresh and beautiful as the day you bought it.

Avoid Harsh Chemicals

Stay clear of upholstery cleaners that use harsh chemicals or toxins to clean your furniture. These furniture cleaners may leave your furniture smelling and looking clean for some time, but there are risks associated with cleaning your furniture with them. For starters, these cleansers are typically full of harsh chemicals and toxins that can actually cause more harm than good to your furniture. Additionally, they are known to actually foster resoiling, resulting in more cleaning. These cleaners may also remove the protective layers of your furniture fabric, resulting in furniture that looks more worn, as well as causing harm to your upholstery.

Stay Clear of Steam

Steam cleaning initially sounds like a great idea when it comes to cleaning your furniture. However, it is important to consider what moisture can do to your furniture. Excessive moisture can cause odors, mold, and soil build-up. When steam cleaning is done the excess water must be sucked up, which can take days to fully dry. Even when the fabric appears dry on the surface, the moisture can still be present deep down. Steam cleaning may also strip your furniture's upholstery, leaving it more prone than before to stains and soil.

Bring Out the Vacuum

Vacuuming your furniture regularly is a great way to clean debris and dirt off of your furniture before it has a chance to seep down and cause problems. Vacuuming will also allow you to prolong the need of more extensive and deep cleaning. Vacuuming should be done at least once a week. Make sure you not only do the visible parts of your furniture; you will also want to make sure you vacuum under the cushions and in the crevices of your furniture.

Spot Clean as Soon as Possible

Accidents happen frequently, and most likely your furniture will not be able to avoid them. Spills are likely to occur, and can lead to permanent stains if not taken care of quickly. Here are some ways to take care of these spills quickly and properly:

  • Always blot from the outside to the center of a spot. Doing so will control the spread of a spill
  • Test your fabric in a hidden area to make sure the color doesn not come off with the stain, or that a ring is not caused by the cleaning agent.
  • If the spot is liquid, use an absorbent white cloth or white paper towel to gently blot up the excess.
  • If the spot is solid material, remove the excess by lifting it off with a dull table knife or spoon.
  • Never rub, scrub, or brush a spill.
  • Never use strong chemicals such as bleach, solvents, or acids unless they are recommended by a specialist.
  • Never use sudsy detergents, as they leave a soapy residue that attracts dirt.
  • Avoid using tap water. Use distilled water or plain seltzer water. Minerals in common tap water can cause rings, even on treated fabrics.

Know Your Furniture Needs

There are a wide range of furniture fabrics and styles available. It is important to know which ones may or may not be best for your particular lifestyle. A leather sofa may not fair well with a home full of cats, but can work great with children because it is simple to clean and wipe spills. If you are decorating a room that will be low traffic and more for entertaining you can choose virtually any furniture fabric. You should also be aware that certain fabrics are more resistant to sunlight damage than others. If you need help finding out what fabrics fit your lifestyle, our trained associates will be happy to assist you at any store location.

The sofa and other various items that comprise the living room are often the center piece and the focal point for guests that you invite into your home. You want to make sure you are caring for them properly in order to keep them clean and increase their life. Following these tips will assure that your living room furniture is properly maintained and cared for.


Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Traditional Oak Furniture - Your Complete Guide to the Very best Oak Household furniture


Traditional Oak Furniture - Your Complete Guide to the Very best Oak Household furniture
Author: Frank Waters
Purchasing oak home furniture for your home is the perfect way to give your residence that mix of style and durability that only oak can offer. It's no wonder that oak has been the home furniture wooden of option for carpenters and craftsmen for hundreds of years. Imagine the charm of a Brooklyn dressing table mirror gracing your bedroom. Or some fine lounge oak tables and chairs in your living space. The simple fact is that both dark and mild oak furnishings can search fantastic in every single room in your home. Here's you total guide to acquiring the greatest oak furnishings.

1st, let's appear at what oak is. Oak is the wooden from the hardwood oak tree, a genus is native to the northern hemisphere. Oak arrives in two major varieties - purple and white. Each have a similar grain but white oak features longer rays. White oak is more sturdy that red and is, of course, lighter in color.

Pink oak wooden is common for flooring, furnishings, and kitchenware among other things. It's a carpenter's dream becoming effortlessly sanded, stained and finished.

Gentle oak is recognized for its toughness and resistance to rot and moisture. This can make is a lot more suitable outdoor use, in patio home furniture, for example. Popular lgt oaks contain Orly, Shaker, Cambridge, Dorset, Mobel Oak Range, Hereford, Atlantis, and Timberland.

So why ought to you pick oak furniture for your residence? The answer can be explained in the two words 'beauty' and 'durability'.

The beauty of oak furniture arrives from its colour and grain. Oak has a timeless, traditional beauty. This implies that an item this kind of as a dressing desk mirror looks as good in a sleek apartment at Canary Wharf as it would in a rustic cottage deep in the countryside.



When it comes to colour, oak has few peers. The colours of oak array from gentle golden shades to a medium brown. Oak real wood is identified for its special grain, which is particularly pronounced when it's quarter sawn. And oak is a porous hardwood which indicates that it stains well.

As for sturdiness, oak's hardness protects it from the knocks of everyday life. Oak also has tannin acid present in its grain which tends to make it resistant to insects, mold and fungus. In reality, most damage to oak results from hot, corrosive or dirty objects placed on the surface of the real wood. Oak's sturdiness helps make it best for homes with active children - it's extremely impervious to blows and scratches.

When it arrives to buying the home furniture, your two principal options are stable oak and veneer. In the latter, a layer of stable oak is glued to a less valuable timber this kind of as pine, plywood or particleboard. Oak veneers can seem extremely nice and are frequently strong and sturdy through being made by overlapping pieces. Even so, low high quality veneers can peel, warp or bubble up and this is challenging to repair.

If you're purchasing stable oak furniture your options are dim or gentle oak. Your decision will depend on this kind of factors as the size of your rooms and the colours of your walls, floors and existing furnishings.

Dim oaks look heavier so may not be suitable in a little area. Lgt oaks create an ambiance of light and space. Mild oak home furniture also has a a lot more chic and modern appear.

What ever sort of home you live in, you're certain to locate the ideal household furniture to mix in and improve your lifestyle, from dinner tables and book-instances to beds and the elegant . Maybe you'd pick a stylish lounge oak coffee desk in your residing space or a traditional dining desk for marvelous meals in your dining room.

You'll be pleased to know, too, that the household furniture is quite straightforward to appear after. Clean up spills instantly and just rub down the oak surface about once a month.

Oak furnishings are a main purchase but you need to search on them as an investment. Purchasing good quality oak-home furniture for your home will bring you decades of use and pleasure and you'll be joining a tradition that dates back centuries.

When looking to purchase oak-household furniture, you can uncover an array of on the web retailers that provide full details of their goods including high resolution images on their internet sites. Look for an established retailer with a wide array of products with detailed descriptions and a lengthy history of customer recommendations.oak furniture
Read more at http://www.articlealley.com