Now you have purchased some brilliant furniture and you’re loving unpacking it. Doesn’t it look amazing? To keep it looking this way, here are a few tips that we have come up with that are sure to help you with this. Maintaining your furniture is maintaining your investment and keeping it tight, clean and fresh will have a lasting impact on the impression your venue leaves.
All furniture needs to be looked after well, but those items that are left out in the elements may need a little more TLC than the ones tucked away inside your venue. Don’t forget, with any cleaning, speed is so important. The quicker you can get something cleaned off, the less likely it will stain and the longer the product is sure to stay looking its best.
Stainless Steel Items
Your stainless-steel items look amazing – especially when they are kept looking new and shiny. Using a scouring pad, you can rub along the steel faces (please make sure you follow the grain structure otherwise a crosshatching effect will show). Another fantastic tip for getting stains out of the steel is to use Industrial Scotch-Brite silicone carbide pads to rub the stains out. Mr Steel is another great product to use for the majority of your stainless-steel cleaning.
Timber Products
Timber looks great – we all love a great timber look. What we don’t love is an old, scratched timber look. We can help you avoid this!
We would recommend that many timber products aren’t used outside (more information on outside timbers is outlined further down). With the constant change in temperature that the Australian climate brings, the timber expands and contracts throughout the changing season and this can mean that cracks are formed in the timber. However, if any cracks do appear in your timber product, a handy trick to have up your sleeve is to fill any cracks with a putty or wax crayon of the same colour.
Many scratches on chairs and stools can easily be made to look good with the use of a wax crayon or timber dye. Another fantastic product recommendation is Mastertouch, which is magic in restoring furniture that has been scratched or dented.
There are some outdoor-specific timbers that are sold. These will be slatted, and not solid, and will also be oiled, and not clear-coated, and therefore will need to be oiled at regular intervals. There isn’t too much of a timeframe on this as they should be done as it is needed. We do recommend the Feast Watson Natural Furniture Oil as the best oil for timber furniture. The best way we found to apply the oil is rubbing it over the product with a rag. Timber can continue to look brand-new with a good maintenance program. Keep up its cleaning and oiling regularly and have a look at lightly sanding your timber products before applying the oil.
Gentas Tabletops
With our range of Gentas tabletops, we would recommend that a soft, damp cloth is used to wipe it clean, and a non-abrasive detergent, e.g. Spray & Wipe, to help with the removal of any stubborn dirt). Alternatively, a Citrus cleaner is great for removing any particularly determined stains. Coffee Expel is a brilliant product for removing coffee stains on lighter tabletops.
A great tip from one of our consultants who works constantly with these tabletops: Try to rotate the indoor and/or alfresco tables with the fully outdoor tables if they are the same. This will help to keep them looking fresh for as long as possible!
Polypropylene Products
Clean your polypropylene items will warm, soapy water. For more established stains, a Citrus cleaner works well. However, these are hardy items, don’t be afraid to pull out the hose or water blaster and give them a good shower. They’ll come out looking better for it!
Maintenance on anything with Bolts and Screws
All screws become a little loose (much like many of us here at Besteel Furniture ) and will need periodic tightening. We would suggest that you come up with a schedule for preventative maintenance, rather than waiting for the issue to present itself.
Depending on the size of your venue, this could be: Table bases on the first and second week of the month and then chairs and stools on the third and fourth week of the month. Alternatively you could do one area the first fortnight and then another area the next fortnight and so on. This will lessen the repair workload and will only take a few minutes.
These are just a few of our suggestions! Your furniture is so important to us and we love to see a great venue maintained at a great level. Follow these few easy tips and you’re sure to see the difference in the longevity of your furniture pieces.