Preserving Your Antique Furniture

Antique furniture is more than just a purchase, it is an investment. Buying antique furniture can be very expensive so it is a good idea to know how to care, handle and protect what you have bought. Another reason this is so important is for the nostalgia factor and the educational factor that so often comes into play when you collect antique furniture.

Maintaining and preserving antique furniture is not just a matter of wiping it with a cloth. There are all kinds of environmental factors and living habits that can accidentally damage a valuable piece.

One of the single biggest enemies of all antique furniture (but especially those made out of wood and fabric) is ultraviolet rays. It is not a good idea to keep your very precious and old antique furniture in a room that gets lots of sun with a big bay window. Wood bleaches out and sometimes even cracks in the sun and fabric will fade over time. The solution to this is to buy heavy drapes and sheers that can keep the sun off of your investment. You can also buy certain types of wood polishes that can help protect wood from too much exposure to U.V.

You also keep to the room that you keep your antique furniture at a moderate temperature. Air conditioning is a must. Antique furniture that is exposed to extreme temperatures will rapidly expand and contract increasing the risk that the wood in them will split or crack. Yet another threat to antique furniture is humidity. Humidity causes bacteria to grow in fabrics and mould to grow on wood. Yet another problem that humidity causes is the swelling and contraction of wood.

Perhaps there is no natural threat so devastating to an antique furniture collector as an army of termites. Yet another serious threat to the fabrics that may be part of your antique furniture is a horde of moths. If you do get a case of these the only thing that you may able to do to stop the infestation is to hire a fumigator to get rid of the bugs.

Perhaps the best way for you to take care of any antique is to simply know exactly what kind of care the object you own requires. This may require some diligent research on the Internet or the library but you are best off knowing how to take care of your antique in the first place rather than experience a huge loss of money later. If you look carefully on the Internet you will probably find a forum, chat or a blog how to care just about any type of antique furniture that has been written by a serious antique furniture collector.

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