First, keep away from feather dusters. They just move dust around, flinging it into the air, moving from one item to the next. Broken quills have sharp edges and could scratch the finish. Some types of dust are abrasive so infrequent dusting can create worn and dull surfaces over the years. Dust can accumulate in cracks and grooves and look an unattractive gray. This dusty buildup eventually becomes hard to remove. Use a clean, washable cloth made of soft, lint-free cotton or a micro fiber cloth. Don’t use a rag that has loose threads or unraveling edges.
Dusting with a dry cloth is abrasive and will ultimately dull the finish. A dry cloth will not really remove much dust. Sprinkling a few drops of water onto the dusting cloth. The trick is to moisten the cloth just enough to make dust adhere to it. The cloth should not be so damp that it wets the finish (leaving water streaks). If you can see any trace of water on the wood after you wipe, your cloth is to wet. Do not use any spray-on dusting aids or polish. Most of them contain water with an emulsifier to suspend some kind oil, or contain silicones. This type of oil is used in most commercial furniture sprays and polishes.
Wipe off dust using gentle, oval motions along the grain of the surface. Turn or fold the cloth often so you don’t just move dust and dirt from one spot to another.
1. Maintaining Brass Furniture:
If you ordered your pieces from Scala Luxury with a protective Crystal Coating , it will not tarnish for a very long time and will only need to be dusted. If you ordered pieces without our Crystal Coating and the brass is weathering too much for your taste, you will need to polish it with a brass cleaning-polishing solution. Depending on humidity and temperature factors in your area, tarnishing is simply a natural process of brass aging and building up a patina. By polishing a piece with a cleaning-polishing solution, you simply remove the patina and the original polished brass will resurface. The cleaning-polishing solution we recommend is called Brite Boy and works very well. This is important; do not expose your furniture for longer periods of time to direct sunlight, or, close to windows with UV exposure and also avoid placement near air conditioner outlets since this could cause shrinkage, discoloration and other irreversable damage to the finished surface.
2. How to partially polish a Brass Furniture piece:
Depending on the piece and the amount of tarnishing that occurred, often you can get away with cleaning just parts of a piece. We recommend to always polish entire parts, such as the entire top, the entire side or the entire drawer front of a piece. Once a piece is tarnishing, it also changes color. Assume you would only polish is small part of a drawer font, the original polished brass color will resurface, which might be very different from the tarnished color on the rest of the peace. Therefore, always polish entire parts, such as tops or sides or drawer fronts.
*** NOTE: Please carefully look at your furniture piece before you start polishing it and realize that polishing will remove the natural patina that has built up over time and therefore also will change the color in the newly polished areas. You might want to consider re-polishing the entire piece to achieve an even color. If the results of part-polishing are not satisfactory because the color differences are too drastic, please move on to the next step of polishing an entire piece.
3. How to Polish an entire Brass Furniture piece:
If the tarnishing of your piece has exceeded what you had wished for, you will need to re-polish the entire piece from ground up. This can be time-consuming depending on the degree off tarnishing.
- Step 1:
We recommend a brass cleaner called BRITE BOY which is available in better hardware stores or online. You will also need to several cotton rags or micro fiber cloth.
- Step 2:
Apply a good amount of BRITE BOY to your rag, not on the surface of the piece. Then wipe your rag in even circular motions over the peace and distribute the polishing compound evenly over the surface to be polished. We recommend polishing a piece in sections, such as the top first, then the sides, then the front. You will get better results this way.
- Step 3:
After you finished polishing your piece and you rejuvenated the original polished brass surface, it is recommended that cotton or polyethylene (not natural rubber) gloves be worn for the final cleaning or polishing. It is worth remembering that freshly cleaned and polished metal surfaces are especially sensitive to fingerprints. At the end of the polishing process you might still find some residue left on the surface, or residue from the polishing compound. You can easily remove this residue with denatured alcohol. If you have difficulties finding this type of alcohol, as a second choice you could use acetone as well. This will remove the residues from the brass surface, just simply wipe it off.
*** NOTE: Polishing should be done only if the surface can be protected afterwards from tarnishing again, which is not easy to do, unless you are a professional with finishing-brass experience. It is probably not worth the time to spend in polishing away material from the surface, if tarnish is allowed to reform again. We suggest that you wax your furniture piece after polishing, immediately. Any high-quality (emphasis on high quality) carnauba car wax can do the trick to somewhat protect your newly polished brass surface, at least for a while. There are different techniques depending on the top coat on your piece. If you are not sure what topcoat you have, please feel free to contact us.
4. Maintaining Goatskin items (with Matte Topcoat):
Use a clean, washable cloth made of soft, lint-free cotton. Best are soft cotton fabrics or micro fiber cloths. Do not use a rag that has loose threads or unraveling edges. Dusting with a dry cloth is abrasive and will ultimately dull the finish. A dry cloth will not really remove much dust. Sprinkling a few drops of water onto the dusting cloth. The trick is to moisten the cloth just enough to make dust adhere to it. The cloth should not be so damp that it wets the finish (leaving water streaks). If you can see any trace of water on the wood after you wipe, your cloth is to wet. Do not use any spray-on dusting aids or polish. Most of them contain water with an emulsifier to suspend some kind oil, or contain silicones. This type of oil is used in most commercial furniture sprays and polishes. Wipe off dust using gentle, oval motions. Turn or fold the cloth often so you do not just move dust and dirt from one spot to another. This is important; do not expose your furniture for longer periods of time to direct sunlight, or, close to windows with ongoing UV exposure and also avoid placement near air conditioner outlets since this could cause shrinkage, discoloration and other irreversable damage to the finished surface.
5. Maintaining Goatskin items (with Hand Polished High-Gloss Topcoat):
Maintain your items by using a clean, washable cloth made of soft, lint-free cotton. Best are soft cotton fabrics or micro fiber cloths. Don't use a rag that has loose threads or unraveling edges. Dusting with a dry cloth is abrasive and will ultimately dull the finish. A dry cloth will not really remove much dust. Sprinkling a few drops of water onto the dusting cloth. The trick is to moisten the cloth just enough to make dust adhere to it. The cloth should not be so damp that it wets the finish (leaving water streaks). If you can see any trace of water on the wood after you wipe, your cloth is to wet.
This is important; do not expose your furniture for longer periods of time to direct sunlight, or, close to windows with ongoing UV exposure and also avoid placement near air conditioner outlets since this could cause shrinkage, discoloration and other irreversable damage to the finished surface.
6. Maintaining Stainless Steel Furniture:
For light cleaning (like fingerprints, stains and small smudges), try a mild glass cleaner. Apply with a clean micro fiber cloth and clean in even circular motions. For a more in depth cleaning use "Weimann Stainless Cleaner and Polish". This will clean your stainless piece of furniture, refresh the color and leave a light protective coat on your piece. This is important; do not expose your furniture for longer periods of time to direct sunlight, or, close to windows with ongoing UV exposure and also avoid placement near air conditioner outlets since this could cause shrinkage, discoloration and other irreversable damage to the finished surface.
7. Maintaining Shagreen Furniture:
There is no other maintenance necessary other than frequent dusting. Shagreen is a very strong almost indestructible skin but at the same time also delicate and very sensitive to water. Refrain from using any cleaners such as Pledge or Windex. Do not use water or a moist cloth to clean it. Over time you may notice separation between the skins, which occurs due to normal temperature, humidity, and seasonal weather changes. This beautiful skin will change with time, but will continue to be beautiful as it gracefully ages. This is important; do not expose your furniture for longer periods of time to direct sunlight, or, close to windows with ongoing UV exposure and also avoid placement near air conditioner outlets since this could cause shrinkage, discoloration and other irreversable damage to the finished surface.
8. Maintaining Lizard-Skin Furniture:
Lizard skins are exotic skins that will last decades if properly cared for. Keep your lizard skin furniture away from direct sunlight, heaters or air conditions or any other extreme temperatures, or temperature changes. Skins might naturally change color over time which is a natural aging process. We recommend to frequently treat your skin furniture with a conditioner for exotic skins. You could use for example Scout Reptile & Exotic Leather Cleaner & Conditioner which will keep the skin from drying out, if used properly. Dust is the #1 culprit of skins! This is important; do not expose your furniture for longer periods of time to direct sunlight, or, close to windows with ongoing UV exposure and also avoid placement near air conditioner outlets since this could cause shrinkage, discoloration and other irreversable damage to the finished surface.
9. Maintaining Raffia Furniture:
Scala Luxury’s Raffia Furniture are protected with a light coat of lacquer to avoid fingerprints and keep the surface clean. Use a clean, washable cloth made of soft, lint-free cotton. Best are soft cotton fabrics or micro fiber cloths. Do not use a rag that has loose threads or unraveling edges. Dusting with a dry cloth is abrasive and will ultimately dull the finish. A dry cloth will not really remove much dust. Sprinkling a few drops of water onto the dusting cloth. The trick is to moisten the cloth just enough to make dust adhere to it. The cloth should not be so damp that it wets the finish (leaving water streaks). If you can see any trace of water on the wood after you wipe, your cloth is to wet.
Do not use any spray-on dusting aids or polish as this may stain the raffia and cause discoloration. Most of them contain water with an emulsifier to suspend some kind oil, or contain silicones. This type of oil is used in most commercial furniture sprays and polishes. Wipe off dust using gentle, oval motions. Turn or fold the cloth often so you don't just move dust and dirt from one spot to another. This is important; do not expose your furniture for longer periods of time to direct sunlight, or, close to windows with ongoing UV exposure and also avoid placement near air conditioner outlets since this could cause shrinkage, discoloration and other irreversable damage to the finished surface.
10. Maintaining Ice-Resin/Lucite Furniture:
Keep your ice-cracked resin furniture away from direct sunlight, heaters or air conditions or any extreme temperatures, or temperature changes. Drastic temperature changes might cause the ice-resin to shrink or expand, or even bend and twist. Dusting with a dry cloth is abrasive and will ultimately dull the finish. A dry cloth will not really remove much dust. Sprinkling a few drops of water onto the dusting cloth. The trick is to moisten the cloth just enough to make dust adhere to it. The cloth should not be so damp that it wets the finish (leaving water streaks). If you can see any trace of water on the wood after you wipe, your cloth is to wet.
This is important; do not expose your furniture for longer periods of time to direct sunlight, or, close to windows with ongoing UV exposure and also avoid placement near air conditioner outlets since this could cause shrinkage, discoloration and other irreversable damage to the finished surface.
