How To Care For Your Dining Table

by Joanna Lee

Investing in a dining table for your home is a big deal. Once hidden away in rarely-used dining rooms, nowadays your dining table will shape your daily life and bring both functionality and style to your home. At the heart of your home, your dining table has a big job to do. Daily life will revolve around it and its role will change from day to day, minute to minute. Ultimately, your table will be the hardest working member of your family and will become a place to eat, to work, to study and to come together with family and friends for memories to be made and stories shared.

At Home Barn we have a real soft spot for a good dining table. Our reclaimed wood dining tables are all handcrafted and made to stand the test of time. The carefully selected salvaged timbers are perfectly imperfect in appearance and chosen to be as characterful as possible with authentic dents, marks, cracks & splits, blemishes and imperfections. They offer practicality and are sympathetic to everyday wear and tear, and most importantly they are ultimately very easy to care for.

When you receive your Home Barn dining table it will not be sealed with wax or lacquer. It is designed to look rustic, just the way we like them, and have a bare scrubbed appearance. Treat your tabletop with care and love and let your common sense prevail. For daily maintenance simply dust over your table with a dry or slightly damp cloth and, in the unfortunate event of a spillage, aim to wipe up any spills with a dry cloth as soon as you can. Don't allow liquids to sit on the surface too long to help prevent staining.

The unscrubbed unwaxed look is very aesthetically beautiful, but you can choose to wax your tabletop if you prefer a more durable family-friendly finish. Wax will not change the overall appearance of the wood and will add a water-resistant barrier to your table. However, once waxed, wax should be re-applied on a regular basis to keep up the protection and reseal it. We will of course supply the wax and tell you how to do it!

With its unique appeal, individual markings and characterful wear and tear from a previous life, it’s important to care for your wood to help it continue to stand the test of time. As an organic material, timber will continue to evolve over time. It will react to its immediate environment and respond to seasonal changes in temperature and humidity. Therefore, there may be some natural wood movement as your table settles into its new home. This is nothing to worry about and is an intrinsic part of its character.

These are a few things dos and don'ts to help get the best out of your table.

Extremes of temperature must be avoided for the first few months until your table has settled in. Temperature and humidity should be kept constant or the timber may warp, shrink or crack so err on the side of caution and avoid sitting your table on a floor with underfloor heating when it first arrives. If you must have it on, then choose the lowest setting possible.
Ideally try not to expose your table to direct hot sunlight. Excessive or prolonged exposure to sunlight can significantly alter the colour of our furniture and dry the wood.
Please have two people on hand to move the table when necessary. Tables do not like to be dragged around and dragging may, over time, loosen joints within the legs
Use coasters and placemats where possible to protect the wood and prevent burn marks, heat damage and to avoid staining to the table’s surface.
Try to avoid using high-street cleaning products as products designed specifically for modern furniture may be too harsh. Make sure to read the label before applying and always start with a small area as a trial. In addition, if your furniture needs emergency care, it’s usually best to consult a professional.

At Home Barn, our dining tables are designed to look beautiful, stand up to our busy lifestyles and everyday wear and tear and, most importantly, age gracefully. With a little love and help, your table will be with you to enjoy for a lifetime.