Tips For Keeping Your Dining Table In Pristine Condition
A dining table is a “must have” piece of furniture for everybody’s home, which enables families to bond by taking their meals together while talking about the day’s events; and allows friends to come around and socialize, either during a dinner party, or simply dropping by for a cup of coffee and some juicy gossip. Because of its importance, it really does pay dividends to keep your dining room table looking perfect. It is always on show so it’s nice to have it looking good, but it will also last longer if it is given a little love and attention from time to time; and treated with a bit of respect.
There are three main types of potential danger for the table surface, whatever material it is made out of: these are spillages, heat damage, and scratches. The first two are an ever-present threat since they come with the territory when using a table for serving and eating hot meals. There are a couple of solutions to the spillage problem. The first is to use a decent table cloth at mealtimes; there are many available from homewares and department stores, either made from cotton material or vinyl. Vinyl ones are good as spillages can easily be wiped off with a wet cloth. The heavy cotton ones will need to go to laundry, but ooze quality. If you want to show off your lovely polished wood surface though, you can get table runners, which stretch over the table from one person to the person opposite. These can catch small spillages and offer some protection against very hot serving plates.
It is always a good idea to use table mats (or pads) for each place setting so that hot plates never come into contact with the bare wooden table top. This is important for surfaces that have coatings on them, as occasionally heat can cause it to blister.
Scratches are usually caused by metal objects being stored temporarily on the dining table; things like loose change and keys are the prime suspects as they are normally picked up by dragging them across the table. So get a small metal bowl for these items and keep it somehere else, or place it on a hard coaster to protect your table.
If you follow these tips, and give the dining table a good polish regularly, it will always look nice and will last a very long time.