The care ritual: living with solid wood

A Solid Bench piece is built to be used, not guarded. Here is everything you need to keep it looking honest — for years, and for the generation after you.

Solid wood is a living material. Cared for simply, it only deepens with age.

Most furniture asks you to be careful with it. Ours asks the opposite. A Solid Bench table is finished to be lived against — spilled on, worked at, eaten off, leaned on. The grain is meant to be seen, not hidden beneath a cloth. What follows is not a list of anxieties. It is a short, honest account of how to keep solid wood doing what it does best: getting better with age.

The finish we use, and why it matters for care

We finish our indoor pieces with a food-grade Belgian hardwax oil that bonds into the wood fibre rather than sitting on top as a film. For everyday living, this is the one thing worth understanding: because the finish lives inside the wood, almost everything that happens to the surface can be tended at home. A scratch takes oil and softens. A dull patch takes a wipe of oil and returns. You're caring for wood, which is forgiving — not a plastic coating, which isn't.

That single quality is what makes the rest of this guide so short.

Everyday care

The daily ritual is almost nothing. For surface pieces — dining tables, coffee tables, desks — wipe clean after use with a soft, slightly damp cloth. That's it. Oiled wood is water-resistant, so a spill wiped reasonably promptly will do no harm. It is not waterproof, so don't leave standing water to sit overnight.

Here's the quiet reward: that daily wipe is also a gentle buffing. Over months and years, the simple act of cleaning works the surface smoother and brings up a soft, lived-in sheen. The more you use the piece, the better it looks — which is rather the point.

A few honest cautions, all of which come down to respecting that wood is alive:

Keep it out of direct sunlight

Prolonged direct sun can dry the wood unevenly and, over time, open joints or cause warping. A bright room is fine. A tabletop sitting in a beam of afternoon sun, every day for years, is not.

No abrasives

Avoid scrubbing pads and abrasive cleaners — they lift the oil out of the surface. A soft cloth handles almost everything.

Keep construction dust away

If there's building or renovation work nearby, keep the piece covered or out of the room. Fine construction dust is abrasive and will dull the finish.

About water rings

Don't worry if a glass leaves a pale ring. On an oiled surface the water sits on top rather than soaking in — you wipe away what you can, and the faint mark you sometimes see is simply the last of the moisture evaporating. Give it a couple of hours and the ring fades on its own. It isn't damage, and it isn't permanent.

The annual refresh

Once a year — or whenever the wood starts to look a little dry or thirsty — give the piece a refresh. It takes about ten minutes and no special skill. Because our oil bonds into the wood rather than layering on top, you use very little, and you never leave it to soak.

A little goes a very long way — 100 ml lasts most pieces for years. We use a food-grade Belgian refresh oil made for exactly this, and we can send you a bottle whenever you need one. Just reach out and we'll post it to you with simple instructions.

Scratches, dents and spot repair

This is where an oil finish earns its keep. Because the finish is in the wood and not a layer above it, most marks can be repaired exactly where they happen — no need to touch the rest of the piece.

The repaired spot blends back into the surface rather than leaving a patch, because you're re-oiling wood, not touching up paint. For a deeper mark or a larger area, this same approach works — it simply takes a little more patience. If you'd rather not do it yourself, we can guide a local craftsperson through it, or take the piece back for refurbishing.

Paper cord, concrete and fabric

Some of our pieces bring other honest materials alongside the wood. Each asks for its own light touch:

Paper cord — woven seats and backs need only a dry brush or a vacuum on low suction to lift dust from between the strands. Keep it dry; blot spills, don't soak. It firms and settles beautifully with use.

Concrete — sealed, but still porous by nature. Wipe with a damp cloth, avoid acidic cleaners like vinegar or citrus, and use a coaster under anything that could stain. Small marks are part of how concrete ages.

Fabric — most of our fabrics carry a nano-coating that helps them resist spills, giving you time to blot a splash before it soaks in. Beyond that, vacuum gently, rotate loose cushions so they wear evenly, and blot spills rather than rubbing them. Follow the specific fabric care we share with your piece.

Outdoor pieces

Furniture we make for outdoor use is finished with a dedicated outdoor oil built to handle a little weather. A word of honesty first: solid wood belongs in sheltered outdoor spaces — a covered balcony or patio, not open exposure. We don't recommend our pieces for full, relentless sun or for rain that pools and sits on the surface. Indirect light and the odd passing shower are fine. Sun beating down all day, or water left standing to evaporate off the wood, are not.

Given that, plan to re-oil an outdoor piece roughly once a year. The ritual is the same as the indoor refresh: clean, work a small amount of oil in with a cloth, then rub off the excess. Keep the piece shaded when you can and wipe away standing water, and it will serve you beautifully for years.

When to call us

We built the piece, and we're happy to help you look after it for as long as you own it. If a mark has you unsure, if the wood is looking tired after years of good use, or if you'd simply rather leave it to someone experienced — talk to us.

For most pieces after four or five years of daily use, a light re-sanding and re-oil brings the surface fully back to life. We can walk you through it, send you the right oil, guide a local sander in your city, or take the piece in for a full refurbish. Whichever you choose, the answer is never "buy a new one."