It is important to take care of the wooden furniture at home during the rainy season. The corners, bottom and back of the furniture must be cleaned at least once in a month and especially during monsoon, suggest experts.
Vipul Amar and Harsheen Arora — Co-founders at The V Renaissance — and Deepak Asar, Visual Merchandising Manager at Rentomojo, have shared inputs on how you can save your furniture:
* Move your wooden furniture away from doors and windows, where it can’t come in contact with raindrops or leakages.
* Depending on the polish on the furniture, always apply a coat of lacquer or varnish at least once in two years to fill in the pores and increase its longevity by preventing swelling of the wood during monsoon season.
The easy way to do this for smaller articles is to use the lacquer sprays available at the nearest hardware store.
* Fix washers under the base of the furniture leg in order to avoid contact with moisture on the floor.
* Keeping the house clean will help ensure that the right moisture level is maintained that’s conducive to the wooden furniture in the house. Also, air conditioners can be of great help here, since they can prevent rise of humidity levels by keeping the air in your home fresh and cool.
* Don’t use a damp piece of cloth to clean your wooden furniture. Instead, use a dry and clean cloth to prevent dust accumulation. Dust tends to absorb moisture and this may soften the finishing of the wood.
*Wooden furniture tends to swell during the monsoon due to moisture absorption. This causes drawers and doors to get stuck while opening or closing them. This can be avoided by oiling or waxing the furniture. Try and use spray-on-wax for a neat and clean finish.
* Initiate any renovation or beautification work during the monsoon because activities like painting and polishing might not give the best output when done in an environment with high moisture levels. It may even spoil your wooden furniture. Instead, just stick to maintenance and basic cleaning.
* Camphor or naphthalene balls are great moisture absorbers. They’ll also help protect clothes as well as wardrobes from termites and other pests. In case you want to go for something more natural, neem leaves or cloves will serve the same purpose.
