Solid wood furniture doesn’t need much — but it does need something, which is more than most people realize until a table starts looking tired after a few years.
Most of what we make is finished with hardwax oil rather than lacquer, and the biggest difference that makes for care is simple: you can maintain it yourself, at home, with a cloth. Lacquer sits on top of the wood as a hard shell — once it’s damaged, you’re usually looking at a full professional refinish. Hardwax oil soaks into the grain, so a light scratch or a dry patch just needs a thin reapplication of maintenance oil, buffed in and left to cure for 24 hours.
A few habits keep any piece looking right for decades:
– Wipe spills promptly with a dry or slightly damp cloth — standing water is the main thing that dulls a finish over time.
– Use coasters and placemats on dining tables and coffee tables. Not because the finish can’t handle a hot mug, but because repeated heat rings do eventually show.
– Keep pieces out of direct, prolonged sunlight where you can — UV exposure fades wood tone unevenly over years.
– Re-oil lightly once or twice a year for pieces that get heavy daily use (dining tables, kitchen islands), less often for lower-traffic pieces like bookshelves.
That’s genuinely most of it. Solid wood was designed to be lived with, not preserved behind glass.
