Furniture Consignment Gallery Blog

Our loveable Boxer is a sweet pet, but, boy, can she slobber! And she has a habit of finding the most comfortable spot in the house and making it her own.  Since I'm a guy with a showroom full of furniture, you might think I let her sleep where she chooses, but no. We gate off our living room so that our upholstery stays clean and free of eau de pet. 

That's one way to protect your furniture, but here are some other suggestions you might consider.

Do use table pads on your dining room table. They are crucial to enjoying family dinners and holiday events. Your tabletop is not designed to handle a hot platter or dripping candle wax. A quality pad offers the protection you need to enjoy entertaining. Throw a tasteful tablecloth over it and relax. Your table is protected from nicks, gouges or spills. McKay Table pads are reasonably priced and can be purchased from most upscale furniture stores.

Don't put custom-cut glass on the tops of desks or tables. Glass detracts from the warm, elegant beauty of the wood.  Every time I see glass on a table top I cringe because, inevitably, the protective circular buffers that hold the glass in place stick to the wood and ruin it. And if moisture gets trapped between the glass and the surface, the wood may be damaged. 

Do use fabric protection on your upholstery. Murphy's Law is in full force when it comes to your upholstered furniture. Serve coffee, red wine or even a kid’s juice box and someone will manage to spill it. Fabric protection really works. Liquids bead up – and don’t soak in. We offer our customers a product manufactured by ForceField. We think it is great, but there are other fabric protectors that also do a good job.

Don't cover your upholstery with plastic. Though it may offer some protection, it looks ridiculous, and it kills the ambiance of a room. Just because Grandma did it doesn’t mean it is a good idea. You don’t want guests to think you're an obsessive-compulsive germ-a-phobe.

Do install window film that will protect furniture and upholstery from the sun's damaging ultraviolet rays. Window film won’t change the view, but it will shield your furniture from powerful rays that could cause fading, drying and cracking. This solution can be pricey, but if you have invested in upscale furnishings and you have sunny windows, you may want to consider it. 3M makes a quality Sun Control Window Film product.

Don't feel badly if your lifestyle does mean a bit of wear-and-tear for your furniture. Relax. If you want to celebrate your big promotion by stretching out on the couch with the family dog in your lap while smoking a fine cigar and sipping a vintage merlot, go for it. You don’t want to live in a museum.

A gentleman phoned our store last week and wanted to discuss selling his furniture and he wanted us to know that is was "brand new". "We never even used it!" he exclaimed. When he struggled to describe the set, couldn't recall how he acquired the pieces, how much they cost him or what store they were purchased from, I became concerned that his items were stolen.  After asking a few more Colombo style questions, I uncovered that the set was purchased between 1965 and 1969. That explained why the man couldn't remember much about the purchase process.  But it was the fact that he described his furniture to be "brand new" that initially threw us for the loop.

This is actually a fairly common conversation with our potential consignors. In accentuating the point that they took great care of the their furniture assets, they will tell us that a sofa was only sat on five times or that the dining set was used on Easter 3 years ago and that was the extent of its use.  But what they don't often realize is that their furniture endures a lot of unintentional and unnoticed abuse.

Furniture finishes and upholstered items often break down due to the natural elements and cleaning practices.  Here are some ways to keep your furniture in showroom condition without screaming "don't touch that!" at your kids.

• Be aware of the sunlight in your room.  Sun is one of the great destroyers of furniture.  A dining set may never host a single family dinner and yet can get walloped by the sun every day.  Ultraviolet rays on your furniture will cause significant bleaching, discoloration, peeling finish and flaky wood.  It is important to pay attention to the times of day and year when the furniture will be exposed to these direct rays.  Installing blinds, a film over your windows, or rotating your furniture periodically can help to slow the sun's damaging effects on your prized pieces.

• Living in New England with the crazy weather patterns that we experience can put furniture through the ringer.  Especially in the Spring and Fall when we have the heat on in the mornings and then turn it off during the day, it can be literally torture on your furniture as it absorbs and releases moisture causing it to expand and contract. In these months, close the heating vents in the rooms that host your nicest furniture.  Do your best to position furniture away from heating and cooling vents.

• Believe it or not, dust build-up on your furniture and how it is removed can cause your finish to scratch.  We see dining tables and dresser tops that have been cleaned in a circular motion and under direct lighting, circular scratches are very evident.  Dusting with a damp, clean cloth, is generally the safest and best way to keep the dust mites from compromising your prized finishes.

Caring for your furniture is as much about understanding the elements that exist in your home and being aware of how they effect your home furnishings.  Furniture doesn't need to be sat on or used to endure wear and tear.  We often have the ugly job of pointing out the results of this unintentional furniture abuse to proud owners who thought they were doing the best for their furniture.