Cleaning & care
Looking after it.
Most of what shortens the life of a piece of furniture is not use. It is sun through an afternoon window, a heater a foot away, or a spill left to sit while someone goes looking for the right cloth.
Below: what to do in the first two minutes of a spill, then what each material in the range actually wants — oiled timberfabricleather & eco leatherceramic & sintered stonetravertineglassmetaloutdoor weave.
Before anything else
Five things, whatever it is made of.
None of these are about cleaning, and between them they account for most of the damage furniture takes in a house.
Sun
Afternoon sun through glass does more damage than any amount of sitting on a piece. It fades a dye, bleaches a natural fibre, lightens oak and deepens walnut, and dries a solid top until it moves. Blinds, or turn the piece, or accept that one face will end up a different colour from the other three.
Dry heat
A radiator or a ducted vent within a metre pulls moisture out of solid timber and makes an eco-leather surface brittle enough to crack at the seams. Winter is when this happens, and it happens quietly.
Standing water
It is rarely the spill that marks a surface. It is the twenty minutes the spill sat there while someone looked for the right cloth. Wipe, then dry — a damp surface left to air is still a surface with water on it.
How it gets moved
Lift, never drag. Felt pads under every foot, replaced when they wear through. Take the top off a table before the table goes anywhere, and carry a glass top on its edge rather than flat.
How it gets sat on
A sofa arm is not a seat and the back legs of a dining chair are not a fulcrum. Rocking back on two legs concentrates the weight of a whole person onto one joint, and it is the single most common way a chair is broken. It is also not a warranty claim.
Right now
Something has just gone over.
On almost everything the first move is the same: blot, never wipe. What changes is how long you have. Pick what went over.
Two minutes
Red wine
Blot with a dry cloth. Press straight down and lift; do not wipe, which drags it across three times the area it landed on.
On fabric, work inwards from the edge of the mark with a barely damp cloth. On travertine, rinse the spot with clean water and dry it, because wine both stains and etches stone. On timber, ceramic or glass, dry the area and it is done.
Five minutes
Coffee and tea
Blot the liquid, then lift the rest with a cloth wrung out in warm water.
Tannin sets as it dries and gets harder to shift every hour. If a shadow is still there once the surface is dry, deal with it that day rather than that week.
Before it spreads
Oil, butter, grease
A dry cloth first, and only a dry cloth. Water does not lift oil, it carries it further into the weave or the grain.
On fabric, a light dusting of cornflour left for an hour will draw a surprising amount back out. After that, mild soap in warm water on a barely damp cloth, then dry.
Immediately
Ink and dye
Blot dry. Do not reach for a solvent, hand sanitiser or hairspray.
Every household remedy for ink works by dissolving something, and on eco leather and lacquer it dissolves the finish along with the ink. Blot it, leave it, and email us a photograph before you try anything else.
Let it set first
Candle wax
Let it go completely hard. Anything done to warm wax pushes it deeper in.
Lift the bulk with a fingernail or a plastic scraper, never a blade. What is left comes out of fabric under a warm iron through brown paper, and off stone or timber with a plastic edge and patience.
Within the hour
A pet accident
Blot up everything that will come up, with far more pressure than feels polite.
Mild detergent in warm water, then clear water on a fresh cloth, then dry. An enzyme cleaner handles the smell that remains, but patch-test it on the underside of a cushion first — several of them lighten a dyed fibre.
If the mark is still there once the surface is dry, stop and send us a photograph rather than escalating to something stronger. Most of the ruined finishes we see were ruined by the second attempt.
By material
What each one wants.
Two surfaces can look identical and want opposite treatment. The vinegar that lifts limescale off a ceramic top etches a travertine one permanently, and the conditioner that keeps hide supple does nothing at all for the eco leather that most of our seating is upholstered in.
Oiled timber
Every solid timber piece we list is finished in hard-wax oil rather than lacquer. Oil soaks into the grain instead of forming a film over the top of it, which is the whole reason we use it: a ring or a scratch is sanded back and re-coated at the table in about twenty minutes, with nothing stripped and nothing sent away.
The trade is that the finish is porous and does wear. A dining table wants re-coating every year or so, a side table far less often, and a top that catches sun sooner than either.
Every week
- Dust with a dry cloth, following the grain rather than crossing it.
- Wipe with a cloth wrung out until it is barely damp, then dry immediately with a second one.
- Move the lamp, the bowl and the fruit. Oak lightens and walnut deepens over a season, both evenly, unless something has been sitting in one spot since March.
Once or twice a year
- Re-coat with a hard-wax oil. Cloth on, twenty minutes, surplus off with a clean cloth. No sanding unless there is damage to take out.
- For a water ring or a scuff, go over it with 320-grit paper along the grain until the mark is gone, then oil the whole surface rather than the patch — oiling one square leaves a lighter square.
- Run a hand over the top afterwards. If it feels rough, the grain has lifted and wants one more light pass.
Never
- Silicone or wax polish. It leaves a film the oil cannot get through, and the next re-coat will not take at all.
- Spray cleaners, anything with ammonia or bleach, and anything sold as a furniture wipe.
- A hot dish straight onto the surface. A folded tablecloth is not a heat mat.
- A position against a radiator or under a ducted vent.
Movement is not a fault
A solid top is still a piece of a tree, and it takes up moisture in a wet month and gives it back in a dry one. A large table can move a millimetre or two across its width through the year, which is why it is built to allow for it — a top held rigid would split instead of moving.
Fabric upholstery
Covers come off for cleaning on every upholstered piece we list, and the care label sewn into the seam is the final word — it knows the cloth and this page does not. What varies underneath is the weave: linen is a flat natural fibre, chenille and velvet carry a pile that shades where it is pressed, and bouclé is a loop that will pull if a claw or a zip catches it.
In the rangeLinenBoucléChenilleVelvetAll fabric
Every week
- Vacuum with a brush head on low suction, into the seams as well as across the panels. Grit in a seam is what abrades a thread from the inside.
- Plump anything feather-filled and give it a chop, the way you would a pillow. Turn reversible cushions so one face does not take a year of sitting on its own.
- Smooth the seat surface out after use so a crease does not set into the same line every evening.
Marks and spot cleaning
- Work inwards from the outside of a mark. Starting in the middle pushes it outwards into clean cloth and leaves a ring.
- Test anything stronger than water on the underside of a cushion, wait for it to dry, and look at it in daylight before it goes anywhere visible.
- Clean a whole panel rather than a spot. A cleaned patch in the middle of an uncleaned seat is more obvious than the mark was.
- A pulled loop in bouclé gets snipped level with scissors. Pulling it through takes the next four with it.
Never
- Solvents, general cleaning fluids, or anything containing silicone.
- A washing machine, unless the label on that specific cover says so in as many words.
- Drying a damp cover in sun, which sets a water line and fades the fibre in one go.
- Rubbing. It pushes a spill through the weave and flattens a pile permanently.
Pilling is not a fault
Pills are short fibres from somewhere else — usually clothing — working their way into the surface and twisting up. They come off in a couple of minutes with a battery de-pilling tool from any haberdashery, and once the loose fibre is gone they largely stop. Velvet and chenille also flatten and shade where they have been sat on, which is the pile lying down rather than wear.
Leather and eco leather
These are two different materials and they want opposite things. Almost everything upholstered in the range is eco leather: a polyurethane surface bonded to a textile backing. It has nothing to feed, so a conditioner made for hide does it active harm.
Real hide is on a small number of pieces and is named as leather on the product page. If the page does not say leather, it is eco leather.
In the rangeEco leather
Eco leather, every week
- A soft cloth wrung out in warm water, then a dry cloth straight after.
- Nothing else. No conditioner, no wax, no oil, no leather food — there is no hide under the surface for any of it to reach.
- Keep it out of direct sun and a clear metre from any heat source. Heat and UV are what turn the surface brittle and open the seams, and that damage cannot be put back.
Hide, two or three times a year
- Dust weekly with a soft dry cloth so grit never sits in the grain.
- Clean and condition the whole piece with a product made for finished leather, panel by panel, not just where it is used.
- Watch buckles, studded belts, rivets and claws, all of which cut a surface that will not close again.
- Body oils and some medications carry through skin and break down a surface coating over months. Regular cleaning is the answer to it; a throw over the headrest is the other.
Spills on either
- Lift immediately with a barely damp cloth, working from the outside of the mark inwards with almost no pressure.
- Grease gets a dry cloth first, then mild soap in warm water, then a dry cloth again.
- Dry it naturally and out of sun. A hair dryer will shrink and crack both materials.
Never
- Baby wipes. The alcohol in them strips a top coat, and it is the most common way an eco-leather sofa is ruined.
- Saddle soap, dubbin or neatsfoot oil on eco leather.
- Solvents, bleach, or any all-purpose spray cleaner on either material.
- A position beside a heater, a fire or a west-facing window.
Creasing and stretch are not a fault
Both materials give where they are sat on and pick up fine lines across the seat within weeks. On hide the grain and the colour also vary panel to panel, because they varied on the animal — an even, uniform surface is the sign of a heavy pigment coat, not of better leather.
Ceramic and sintered stone
The hardest surface in the range and by a distance the easiest to live with. It is mineral powder fired into a sheet: non-porous, so it does not stain, does not need sealing, and does not mark from a hot dish.
The marble figure on our ceramic tops is printed and fused into the surface rather than quarried. Treat it as ceramic and not as stone — it takes cleaners that would etch a real slab, and it never needs the sealing that a real one does.
In the rangeCeramic
Every week
- A damp cloth and a drop of mild detergent. That is genuinely the whole routine.
- Dry it off afterwards, which matters only on a dark top where water spots show.
Marks that do turn up
- Limescale from hard water lifts with equal parts warm water and white vinegar, left for a minute. Safe here in a way it is not on travertine.
- A dull grey streak from a pan base or a chair leg is metal transferred onto the surface, not a scratch in it. A cream cleaner and a soft cloth take it off.
Never
- Cutting directly on it. The surface wins and the knife does not.
- Scouring pads, wire wool or abrasive powders on a polished finish.
- Dragging anything gritty across it — a terracotta pot with sand under the base will leave a mark.
- Standing or sitting on it, which is about the edges rather than the surface.
Chipping at an edge
Ceramic is hard but not tough, and the two are different properties. The face will take almost anything; a corner will chip from a single sharp knock, and that is a break rather than wear. Pull chairs out rather than swinging them, and keep the heavy things away from the edge.
Travertine
Real stone, quarried in beds and cut across them, which is where the banded figure and the open pits come from. Unlike the ceramic above it, travertine is porous. That single fact decides everything below.
In the rangeTravertine
Sealing
- It leaves us sealed. Re-seal every twelve to eighteen months, sooner on a table in daily use.
- Use an impregnating stone sealer, which soaks in, rather than a topical one, which sits on the surface and eventually peels.
- To test whether it is due: put a few drops of water on the top and leave them four minutes. If the stone darkens under them, the seal has gone.
Every week
- Dust, then a soft cloth damp with warm water, then dry.
- Coasters under everything, and a mat under anything hot. Both are doing real work here, unlike on ceramic.
Spills
- Immediately, without exception. Wine, coffee, citrus, vinegar and oil all mark travertine.
- Citrus and vinegar do something worse than stain: they etch, eating a dull patch into the polish that cleaning cannot reverse.
- Blot, rinse the area with clean water, dry it. Do not scrub.
Never
- Anything acidic — vinegar, lemon, descaler, bathroom or limescale cleaner.
- Anything abrasive, including a cream cleaner and the rough side of a sponge.
- Bleach or an all-purpose spray.
- A wet glass straight onto the surface.
Pits and fill are not a fault
The holes are the stone. Some are filled at the quarry with a colour-matched resin and some are deliberately left open, and both are normal in the same top. A fill can work loose after some years; it can be re-filled, and that is a small job rather than a replacement.
Glass
Tempered throughout the range, which makes it four to five times stronger than ordinary glass across the face and no stronger at all at the edges and the corners. Almost every broken glass top in the world was hit on an edge.
In the rangeGlass
Every week
- Spray the cleaner onto the cloth, never onto the glass. Sprayed on, it runs into the joint where the glass meets the frame and onto the frosted face if there is one, and it dries as a bloom on both.
- A second dry cloth, or a sheet of newspaper, for the streaks.
Spills
- There is nothing to absorb them. The only work is the mark left behind, which is the routine above.
Never
- Lifting a table by its top, or a top by its two ends. Carry a panel vertically, on its edge.
- Sitting or standing on it.
- A hot pan with no mat. It is thermal shock rather than weight that breaks tempered glass.
- Abrasive pads, blades and scouring powder.
If tempered glass does fail
It breaks all at once into small blunt pieces rather than cracking into shards, which is exactly what it is designed to do and the reason it is used. It looks alarming and is the safe outcome.
Metal frames and bases
Powder-coated steel and plated finishes sit under a large part of the catalogue. Both are a coating over metal, and both last exactly as long as the coating does — once moisture is through it, what happens next happens from underneath and cannot be cleaned off.
Every week
- Dust, then a damp cloth, then dry. Drying is the part that matters: standing water under a foot is where rust starts, and by the time it shows it has been there months.
- Check the felt pads under the feet and replace them when they wear through to the metal.
Marks
- A plated or chrome finish takes a recognised chrome polish, applied to the cloth and used sparingly.
- A powder coat takes soap and water and nothing else. Polish will haze it.
Never
- Abrasives or solvents on either finish.
- Dragging a base across tiles or boards, which cuts through a powder coat at the feet first.
- Leaving an outdoor piece in salt air without a rinse of fresh water now and then.
- Touching up a chip with anything other than a matched paint. Bare steel under a coating rusts outward beneath it.
Outdoor weave and rope
Outdoor seating is a synthetic weave over an aluminium or powder-coated frame, with rope detailing on some pieces. It is built for weather. It is not built for a whole winter standing in the same puddle.
In the rangeOutdoor chairsSun loungers
Start and end of the season
- Rinse with a hose, then work soapy water into the weave with a soft brush, then rinse again.
- Let it dry in air and shade rather than in direct sun.
- Cover it or bring it in over winter if it will not be used. Most of the wear on outdoor furniture happens in the months nobody sits on it.
Through the year
- Tuck a loose strand back into the weave rather than cutting it — cut, it unravels from there.
- Bring cushions in when it rains, every time. The covers shed water and the foam inside does not.
- Mildew on rope comes off with one part white vinegar to four parts water and a soft brush.
Never
- A pressure washer. It drives water into the frame and lifts the weave off its clips.
- Bleach on rope, which weakens the fibre while it whitens it.
- Leaving it standing in water over a season.
- Storing it damp under a sealed cover, which is how mildew gets started in the first place.
Something gone wrong that this does not cover? Frames and joinery are covered for five years and finishes for two — read the warranty, check the questions we get asked most, or email hello@walnur.com.au with your order number and a photograph.
Still deciding on something?
Send us the room dimensions and what you are trying to fit. We answer in one business day.
