How to clean wood coffee table?

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Answer
Here are the key steps to clean a wood coffee table:
  1. Dust the table using a slightly damp microfiber cloth to remove any loose dirt or debris
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    2. Wipe it dry immediately with a clean, dry cloth to prevent water marks
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    2.
  2. For sticky spots or built-up grime, make a paste with a few drops of mild dish soap and water. Gently scrub the area with an abrasive sponge or cloth, being careful not to damage the finish24. Wipe clean with a damp cloth and dry thoroughly2.
  3. Avoid using harsh cleaners like ammonia, bleach, vinegar or all-purpose cleaners as they can damage the wood finish45. Test any cleaning product in an inconspicuous area first4.
  4. Every 1-2 months, polish the table with a product specifically designed for finished wood furniture, like lemon oil, beeswax, or a wood polish
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    4. Apply with a soft cloth, following product instructions, and buff to a shine4. This moisturizes the wood and protects the finish4.
  5. For extensive water damage, deep scratches, or a worn finish, you may need to refinish the table4. Sand lightly, wipe away dust, then apply 2-3 coats of stain, varnish, polyurethane or lacquer, allowing to fully dry between coats4.
  6. Always clean up spills immediately to prevent staining4. Blot with a clean cloth and use a wooden scraper for dried spills before cleaning4.
With regular gentle cleaning, prompt stain removal, and occasional polishing or refinishing as needed, you can keep your wood coffee table looking its best for years to come4.




Author: hardwoodartisans



Key insights

  • Handmade wooden furniture with a hand rubbed Danish oil finish is a durable and beautiful option for home decor.
  • ️ Hand traffic and oil from fingertips can leave smudges on hardwood furniture, highlighting the importance of regular cleaning and maintenance.
  • 🧼 Using concentrated Murphy's Oil Soap allows for a thicker formulation and better cleaning results.
  • 🧼 The amount of gunk and dirt that accumulates on hardwood furniture surfaces from human hand traffic is surprising and needs regular cleaning.
  • Paying attention to the edges of the piece is crucial for cleaning hardwood furniture.
  • 🧼 Pay attention to the edges of your table and make sure they are clean, as you don't want guests to feel something gummy underneath.
  • Examining furniture from different angles and letting the light hit it can reveal smudges and fingerprints that may have been missed during cleaning.
  • 🧽 You don't really know what you have until you've cleaned it so clean. It first and then take a look and see if there's anything else that you might need or want to do with it.

Timestamped Summary

  • 00:00 Handmade wooden furniture from Hardwood Artisans is finished with a durable Danish oil that occasionally needs maintenance and upkeep.
  • 00:47 Use Murphy's Oil Soap to clean hardwood furniture and remove grease and hand traffic residue.
  • 01:33 Mix 1 oz of Murphy's Oil Soap with 6-8 oz of warm water to create a thicker cleaning solution for hardwood furniture.
  • 02:20 Wet the surface, apply the cleaning mixture, and rub to remove dirt and oil from hardwood furniture.
  • 03:38 Clean hardwood furniture by paying attention to the edges and not necessarily going with the grain.
  • 04:06 Wipe down the table with a damp towel, then dry off the edges with a tea towel for a slight polish.
  • 05:13 Buffing hardwood furniture thoroughly and inspecting it from different angles under light is essential to ensure a clean and smooth surface.
  • 06:17 Clean hardwood furniture with oil soap for a soft feel and immediate use, and make sure to thoroughly clean the surface before applying any polish.

Video Full Text

  • 00:00 Hi my name is Greg Gore and I'm the founder of a company called hardwood. Artisans we make handmade wooden furniture in the U Washington DC area. What you see here is one of the tables that we make the way that we typically finish. Our products is with a hand rubbed Danish oil finish. This is a really good durable finish but it occasionally needs a little bit of Maintenance and upkeep. It's not hard to do. I'm going to show you to do that. We've already gone over this one leaf of this table right here and this other Leaf I'm going to work on right. Now. I'm going to ask uh my cameraman to see if they can get a close picture and you'll see what we have on this table.
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  • 00:47 Over here are some slight accumulations of grease and what I call hand traffic you have oil on your fingertips whenever people touch things they leave behind a certain amount of oil food and whatnot uh. You end up little smudgy type areas on the table toop. Those are best handled by using a product called Murphy's Oil Soap so what I have here is a concentrated uh container of Murphy's Oil Soap. It's a real nice product. It's inexpensive and it's a really excellent way to clean most uh natural wood product products.
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  • 01:33 You can also buy it in a premixed form like this where it's already been diluted where you can just Spritz it on and wipe it off as I'm going to do it. But I like to use the concentrated stuff because I like to have a little bit of a thicker formulation than comes in the spritzer bottle. What I I do is. I take this Murphy's Oil Soap and I get myself a saucer or a little bowl and I'll mix about about 1 o of Murphy's Oil Soap with about 6 to 8 oz of warm water and make up a little solution of this. Uh it's not that this proportion isn't critical but that you end up with a little bit of a thicker mixture than comes into the in with the premix thing.
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  • 02:20 Now. We've been using this mixture here and we've done a couple of pieces in the showroom and I just want to show you how much Gunk we've gotten off of the surfaces of 2 and A2 tables that I've uh been working on that is a lot and what this is is. It's just as I referred to it before as hand traffic. It's just in the course of using things human beings will leave behind a certain film of uh dirt and oil. That's who we are so I'm going to take this. Uh. I'm going to take a regular wash rag squeeze this out and I'm going to take this and just first of all just wet. The surface generally wet the surface you can't go wrong by getting too much of this on here because we're going to buff it off real good. That's not enough to really get that there so I'm going to bring just a little bit more moisture over here. First. Step wet the surface that sort of penetrates in and starts to dissolve the grease and the oil that has accumulated on the surface. Then I'm going to come with a little bit of elbow grease and rub.
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  • 03:38 You don't have to go necessarily with the grain on this either because we're not doing anything abrasive. So if I'm going across the grain. It's not going to hurt the uh the wood. If you're doing anything that has an abrasiveness to it. You always want to go with the grain but what I'm doing here. It does not matter that I'm going across the grain particular really paying attention to the edges of the piece. That's where you're going to get most of the traffic.
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  • 04:06 If you notice I've opened the table up that way if I get a slight amount of uh this material that drips down in here. I'll be able to dry it off you're going to want to pay attention to the edges of your table and actually come back and do the first just feel along the bottom Edge cuz. One thing you don't want to have as a guest over and feels the bottom of the edge and there'll be something underne. It's gummy so make sure that's clean so okay. So I've got this buffed down wiped down. I should say it's still wet damp. Now. I'm going to come back with a uh tea tow. Any towel like this has a little bit of roughness to it. I like this better than paper towels because it's going to absorb more moisture plus it's going to uh do a very very very slight amount of uh polishing on here. I'm getting the edges notice. I'm starting I'm going to dry off my edges.
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  • 05:13 Real good all the way around and then I'm just going to buff down the center portion. This is real good for your triceps. You do this uh on all your furniture and you'll end up with Herculean. Physique I can feel this going smooth when I'm doing this. When I'm buffing this off all of a sudden. It comes a point where it's like uh very slick. The surface has no friction to it and I know I'm good on that I'm going to take this and I'm going to look at it from various points of view and let the light hit it and reflect on it because sometimes if I look straight down on it. It looks just fine if I look at it from an angle and let the light hit it. Differently. I may see some smudges or some fingerprints or some goo or something that I thought I got which in fact I didn't get looks like I've done a good job. Here.
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  • 06:17 I don't see any of those things so I'm just going to go with this I'm going to do a final buff down on it. Nice thing about the m Oil Soap is that I have not applied any additional oil furniture polish anything else to the surface. I've actually removed stuff. So this is. This is ready to use immediately. I don't have to wait half an hour. Two hours 3 hours for the oil furniture polish to settle out. So this is perfectly ready to use. It has a really nice soft feel to it. It looks good from all angles. It's easy to do and you can see once again the amount of uh Gunk that we've picked up off of now three tabletops and all that I've done is removed dirt. That was already on the table if you do want to come back and follow this up with some oil furniture polish. That's just fine but you absolutely want to get the table surface cleaned before you do anything else to it. This is the place to start is with cleaning it. You don't really know what you have until you've cleaned it so clean. It first and then take a look and see if there's anything else that you might need or want to do with it. But don't ever put any polishes or anything over top of the surface that hasn't been thoroughly cleaned and you may find out that this is all that you need to do thank you very much.
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