Tips & Tricks

Polishes:  Most new furniture is already heavily lacquered or treated with polyurethane and any wax-based polish you apply to it will make it look greasy or smeary.  Best policy is to dust it with a lightly damp (with water) clean cloth and follow it up with a dry one.  The water will attract the dust and the dry cloth will remove any moisture that will eventually cause spots like those on glassware.  If your furniture does not have a high gloss finish and is older, you might care to try something like Old English, that is, a polish without a lot of wax solids and has some color in it that will help hide any old dings or surface scratches.

White rings:  White rings are usually caused by moisture that penetrates the finish coat and remains there.  There is an old legend that mayonnaise will do the trick by rubbing it into the ring for a few minutes; this does not work.  This repair usually needs a professional to apply a chemical to penetrate the finish coat to allow the moisture to evaporate and then to spray the affected area with a matching lacquer or polyurethane to blend.

Painted surfaces with damage:  You can always go to the local hobby store or arts and crafts shop and buy a matching acrylic or enamel paint to hide the damage.  Hint: always go lighter than you think the color is.  It is much easier to darken a color to match than it is to lighten it up.

Leather repair: Super glue or upholstery glue can sometimes be used to close the flap made when a piece of leather is torn.  In a high use area like an arm or seat of a chair, try to put a piece of stiff cloth behind the flap to give the repair a bit more strength.

Overspray of lacquer or sticky residue on glass: try glass cleaner and #0000 steel wool (from hardware store).   The steel wool will be lubricated with the glass cleaner and should not scratch the glass (try on a small area at first).  Follow up with more glass cleaner and paper towels.