Archive for the ‘House Care’ Category

Bonded leather as the name suggests is not the real thing but a compilation of scraps of leather pressed together with polyurethane glue to look and feel like real leather. Bonded leather furniture and accessories are offered by most home décor stores.

However it must be cared for as you would real leather. Most times it doesn’t carry a very long warranty given its composition.

Wipe bonded leather furniture with lukewarm water and a soft clean cloth to get rid of the dust and stains if any. Clean any cracks and scratches in a similar manner.

Dry it with another equally soft clean cloth and wait till it dries completely.

Next, wear latex gloves to protect your hands and take the mentioned amount of leather conditioner on a clean soft cloth and rub over the surface, even on cracks and scratches till the conditioner is absorbed by the bonded leather.

Wrought iron benches are a beautiful seating option in outdoor and indoor home décor aspects. They are made for the sturdy outdoors but often the powder coating or paint washes off and the bench has to be redone.

Begin by washing off all surface areas even nooks and crannies of the decorative design element on the bench.

Wear a mask and safety goggles as well as thick gloves before handling chemical paint stripper and enamel paints. Using a chemical paint stripper or by a sanding method remove all traces of paint.

Wash the bench once more to remove paint and soap residues. Now apply alkyd rust-inhibitor to the whole bench twice allowing it to dry thoroughly between coats.

Once both layers of rust inhibitor have successfully dried apply alkyd enamel paint with a foam type brush and let dry. Paint one more layer of the same paint and dry overnight.

Bed boards can either be nailed directly to the bed frame or above the spring board beneath the mattress. Either way they serve the purpose of stabilizing the bed. Bed boards can be flat wooden planks, hinged boards or padded slats and are available at home décor stores.

To place a bed board directly on to the bed frame, strip your bed free of linen, mattress as well as the springboard. Measure the inside lip of the frame so that the bed board rests perfectly on it.

Cut a board to size or get one ready made and place it on the frame lip. Hammer one or two inch nails at a distance of 12 inches from above and below, ensuring that nails are embedded into the board. Popping nails will damage the springboard and mattress.

Return both the spring box and mattress to their rightful place on the bed.

Different heartwood items require different care to preserver and clean them. The heartwood items vary from indoor decorative items including angels, eggs and numerous other shapes and outdoor items made up of epoxy resin that stay out in the weather all year long.

What you require to clean your heartwood creek items is a clean rag or a soft brush, Satin or semi-gloss polyurethane and a spray Feather duster.

1. To clean your outdoor items, wipe your items with a soft rag or a brush once a year when dry to remove the dust or debris accumulated on the surface. To preserve the items apply Spray sating once a year after cleaning.

2. Round and flat collection items such as eggs must be cleaned with soft clothes.

3. The interior decorative figurines like angels and statues must be cleaned with a feather duster as they have little arms places for dust to get accumulated.

4. Opening the birdhouses from back or bottom and then wiping them with a clean rag does the job of cleaning them.

Not all the leather damage can be repaired but some of it can be repaired by cleaning dirt of its pores using a leather friendly conditioner and cleaner. There are many manufactured leather repair kits present in the market that work but repairing leather with natural products is a better idea because natural products give long-lasting repair. What you will need all through is 3 soft cotton cloths, a leather conditioner and a leather sealer.

1. First, wet the first cloth with warm water and wring out the excess of water. Now, wipe the leather to remove dirt and moisten the surface.

2. Now, put a drop of the conditioner on the other cloth and in a circular motion, with a slight pressure, rub the cloth to make it enter the pores. But don’t apply too much pressure.

3. Now, in the end put a drop of the leather sealer on the 3rd cloth, and again in a circular motion, rub the leather.