How to care for high gloss furniture

We have quite a lot of high gloss furniture in our showroom which needs to be cleaned daily in order to keep our showroom looking spick and span. Over the years of cleaning our lacquered furniture we have come up , by trial and error, with the quickest and most effective way of caring for high gloss furniture – by the way these instructions apply not just to glossy finishes but also to matt lacquered finishes also.

Less is More

When caring for lacquered furniture it is very important to never use any chemicals or furniture sprays, such as glass cleaners or furniture polish. Glass cleaners are too corrosive and will cause the lacquer to deform, and silicone based cleaners will leave a greasy film over the surface of the lacquer that is almost impossible to remove. A lacquer surface is a painted surface, so when it comes to lacquered furniture less really is more.

What Cleaning Supplies You Will Need

In our cleaning kit in the showroom we have the following items: a feather duster, a pack of soft microfibre cloths, a spray bottle filled with pure clean water and a ‘glass & polishing’ e-cloth.
For day-to-day cleaning we merrily wipe away all our lacquered furniture with a feather duster – this does the trick for removing surface dust that gathers throughout the day. However if we have a particularly busy (read: messy) day and happen to get a lot of fingerprints on our furniture we whip out our miracle cleaning device, otherwise known as an e-cloth. This little lifesaver obliterates greasy fingerprints with ease, you just need to buff away the finger prints (absolutely no cleaning chemicals needed – you can use the e-cloth on it’s own or you can spray a little clean water) and this leaves our furniture looking as good as new again.

How to Tackle Food or Drink Spills

If we happen to spill a drink onto one of our high gloss sideboards we make sure that we wipe it off straight away, so that is does not have time to dry onto the surface. For this we will use a soft,  absorbent and dry microfiber cloth – this should do the trick in most cases, but if the spill is particularly stubborn or sticky we will spray the area with a bit of water and whip out the e-cloth for a more intense clean.

We can’t stress how important it is to remove spills off your furniture as quickly as possible. This is very important, especially if you have a light coloured piece of furniture and you spill a dark coloured drink (for example, a white gloss sideboard with a red wine spill). In this scenario speed is of the essence, because if you allow that red wine spill to dry onto a white lacquered surface over night the next day you will be very disappointed to find that after you have wiped the spill off there will be a nasty pinkish-red stain on your beautiful piece of furniture – remember, lacquer is a paint so if there is anything that has the potential to dye it (i.e. red wine, coffee, tea, balsamic vinegar) wipe it off straight away!

The Finishing Touches

If , after you have cleaned your furniture, there is a bit of residual water left on your high gloss surface then get a dry, soft microfibre cloth and buff the area until it is dry – this will give your furniture a lovely high shine. Do not leave water to air dry on your lacquered furniture as this will just leave unattractive water streaks. If you do happen to have any streaky lines left by water simply buff away with the e-cloth and these should come out easily.

In a Nutshell

1. For day to day cleaning a simple wipe down with a feather duster or soft microfibre cloth.
2. Wipe away fingerprints and marks with an e-cloth (or soft microfibre cloth)
3. For a deeper clean spray your high gloss surface with water and clean with an e-cloth - then buff dry with a soft, dry cloth.
4. Wipe up liquid spills immediately, and for more sticky spills use clean water and wipe with an e-cloth.
5. Don’t leave water to air dry – instead buff dry with a dry microfibre cloth
6. Do not use any chemical based cleaners. Pure water used together with an e-cloth is all that is required for more deeper cleaning.