Are your vintage and antique pieces dusty and scruffy relatively than shabby and chic? Put those mongrel collectables right with a sympathetic, lean, green, environmental clean.
Walnuts, pecans and other oily nuts may be used to disguise small scratches on wood. These hacks work for quite a lot of soft finishes on furniture — chair backs, tabletops and so forth. It’s useless for sealed, hard lacquer: Sorry.
To start with break the nut open. And pinching it in your fingers rub the flesh forwards and backwards over the scratch in several directions, firmly enough to let the white snag into the scratch.
The oil within the nut will plump the wood fibres, the oxidation of the oil will darken naturally, and the warming up of the encircling waxes and oils will spread the unique finish.
If the dent is deeper, pick up a packet of wax crayons for antique furniture and fill the mark in before refinishing it with a lightweight polish throughout with something like beeswax polish.
Briwax and Libron sticks range from €10-€15 in a family of colors (pale to dark) — an excellent addition to your restoration and cleansing kit.
OIL IT UP
For a daily polish for wood, two parts olive oil to at least one part lemon juice will leave a delicious scent on the air, worthy of a day in Sorrento.
Should you buy some old brown thing from the second-hand shop, and it’s just dulled, you possibly can revive the unique shine with an easy oil and vinegar wipe. The oil will sit up, and the vinegar will evaporate off — that is why they continue to be so protected together.
Use this cleaner for raw wood or second-hand pieces with a soft finish, that you just’re not able to paint or completely strip.
Don’t cloud them up with some low cost silicone furniture spray emblazoned with a honey bee. Never, ever over-wet wood, marble or any unsealed stone with water solutions. They’re all porous.
Wood can swell, and marble will drink down the damp and stain — endlessly. With white marble, it’s over.
ADD VINEGAR TO THE MIX
Old wood furniture has its history written in its finish, and purists don’t need to lift this with heavy cleansing or sanding back.
Use about three-quarters of a cup of fine oil, olive or walnut oil is good, blended with 1 / 4 cup of white vinegar.
Using a soft, clean rag, dip and rub the answer over the wood, working in a circular motion to lift dirt and condition the wood.
The outcomes may be surprisingly good, but will at all times leave a number of the worst visible distressing, let’s call it “honest wear”, so flounce off and spruce up something else.
Old or recent, chrome must have the flash of silver. That said, after 40-50 years, you possibly can expect electroplated chrome to start out breaking up under heavy use, showing pitting, flaking and rust. The one thing you possibly can do now could be to either stabilise it under a urethane coat or have the piece re-plated.
For robust chrome, start with a microfibre cloth, and rub any dirt off with somewhat dip in 1:1 water/white vinegar solution.
Should you’re not getting results, add a dab of baking soda to the vinegar dip. Don’t use neat lemons or their juice on chrome — they are only too acidic.
Moreover, don’t pick on the plating together with your fingers-nails, use a soft, old toothbrush for detail and/or a picket cocktail stick. Wipe dry immediately.
WAX ON
To slow oxidisation, some people do use carnauba automobile wax to seal the surface and add lustre, but wax can trap moisture.
Make sure the piece is bone dry before application. Should you do go to wire wool, start slow with 000 grade pads and well crumpled aluminium foil, as chrome can scratch.
KETCHUP
Ever noticed how easily tomato-based foodstuffs slip off pans? Tomato juice is acidic, relatively gentle and an excellent cleaner, specifically for copper.
As we’d like a paste, you possibly can reach straight for pure tomato paste (handy in a tube) or use good old low cost ketchup — somewhat runny but equally useful.
Ketchup is non-toxic and accommodates vinegar, giving it that extra little bit of welly.
Just put a splotch on a clean soft rag and begin over the surface of the unsealed copper piece in circular motions.
The tarnish should lift easily. Turn the rag over to tackle fresh spots.
If the oxidation is stubborn, spread your ketchup over the whole piece and let it sit for half an hour. You possibly can even add somewhat salt for a light abrasive hit.
JEWELLERY
It’s possible to wash vintage costume jewellery with ketchup too.
Squirt ketchup over the piece and let it sit for some time before rinsing off. Work the liquid cleaner into wonderful detail (not behind paste stones — these should at all times be kept dry) before cleansing with clear water, then drying and polishing with a lint-free cloth.
BRASS, BAKING SODA AND LEMON
Brass also responds well to a taste of ketchup, but I actually prefer to make up a paste of baking soda (your green, clean, super staple) and lemon juice.
This hack works on bare brass, not lacquered brass, which may have to be stripped by a specialist.
Otherwise, just dump a few tablespoons of the soda right into a bowl and add enough lemon juice by the teaspoon to make a cleaner with the consistency of toothpaste. This offers it somewhat heft under your fingertips to work into the alloy without damaging it.
SWITCHES AND DOOR KNOBS
Wearing light gloves to guard your skin from the acetic acid, try applying this to brass features in your period home, including light switches and door knobs.
You possibly can put the paste right into a small plastic food bag secured with an elastic band to sit down on a handle or knob after which wipe it off after 20 minutes to half an hour.
Use a toothbrush to flick the white residue out of wonderful detail.
With brass and copper, at all times try a soap and water wipe first, then trial green mixtures on their base to see if there’s any lifting and shifting of the grot.
RUGS AND CARPETS
That balding vintage rug can retain its charm, even when damaged.
Wool and high wool blends are one of the best of one of the best in carpeting, as with their lanolin-rich fibres they’re stain-resistant.
Wool also pulls in moisture and wicks it back to the atmosphere, gently managing excess humidity and air quality.
Going forward, there are specific key hacks for preserving those oriental and tribal beauties.
VACUUMING
To start with, vacuuming. That is vacuuming on a low power with none beater bar to tug the weave and tufts of an old dear. Vacuum each side of the rug, lifting it gently to an area you possibly can easily work.
Don’t yank it around roughly by the ears. Front, then the back, Androw we’d like to rotate the rug.
It may very well be sitting in direct UV light (look what that’s doing to your face and the backs of your hands) or it may very well be in a traffic area — this evens out the inevitable wear.
Ignore those feverish bloggers. Don’t throw fresh grass clippings or wet tea leaves at your antique or elderly rug, unless you’re intent on staining it.
Steaming creates too many real water droplets.
Some vintage carpets have been over-painted. Wait until that slap-on nightmare dilutes into the encircling pile.
A shake of baking soda is mostly all you’ll ever must freshen, de-odorise and cheer up your carpet. Follow with a lightweight vacuum.
