Wood furniture is always a popular choice when it comes to choosing furniture for your home, but did you ever feel frustrated because you had to clean out mold on wood furniture or you just have no idea on how to maintain a wooden furniture? Wood furniture is durable, appealing, and timeless. Whilst, wood furniture matches with all sorts of room themes, whether it is modern, contemporary, or minimalist. Solid wood is the most popular choice amongst various types of wood because of its aesthetic quality and longevity. Many people choose wooden bed frames over the others as they can upgrade any bedroom space and style. However, the humidity and warm climate of Hong Kong, especially from February to April, may lead to molding, pest growth and damage on solid wood furniture. In general, these problems pose a negative impact on the cleanliness of your living or sleeping environment, overall wellness, and could potentially lead to sickness. Many of you may wonder how you can remove the mold on wood furniture as well as other related problems such as pests and wood deformation. Most importantly we will teach you how to prevent these problems. Let us go through the tips on how to deal with these pesky problems to keep your favorite wooden furniture fresh and clean.

Wooden Bed Frame Product Guide: Table of Contents

  1. How Does Humidity Affect Your Wood Furniture?
  2. 1. Indoor Mold Growth
    1. How to Clean or Remove Existing Mold from Your Wood Furniture?
    2. How to Prevent Mold from Striving on Your Wooden Furniture?
  3. 2. Pests and Bugs Growth:
    1. How to Get Rid of Pests in Your Wood Furniture?
    2. How to Prevent Pests Growing on Your Wood Furniture?
  4. 3. Damage to Wood Furniture:
    1. How to Avoid Expansion of Your Wood Furniture?
  5. Best Tips Is to Choose Your Wood Wisely
  6. Maintenance Tips to Take Care of Solid Wood

How Does Humidity Affect Your Wood Furniture?

1. Indoor Mold Growth

Indoor mold is often found in moist and warm places, in which wood furniture is a common spot for it to grow since wood absorbs moisture when the weather is humid. Mold is formed by the reproduction of spores, these spores land on wood surfaces where moisture retains and starts to thrive. Mold in wood furniture, especially bed frame, is actually dangerous since it may trigger mold allergy and asthma when you come in contact with mold for a long period. Mold not only will affect the neatness of your home, it may even destroy the wood surface since mold will demolish nutrients on wood.

How to Clean or Remove Existing Mold from Your Wood Furniture?

To kill mold on wood furniture, all you need is some protective gears, soap, and a brush.

Step 1: Wear your protective gears: Before starting the cleaning process, put on a mask, wear gloves and safety goggles; and remember to dress in long sleeves and long pants. Since mold may cause allergic reactions for some people, putting on protective gears can prevent you from inhaling them.

Step 2: Vacuum the areas with mold: You will need to suck up spores nearby using a vacuum with a HEPA filter (high efficiency particulate air filter; a type of mechanical air filter that captures all particles) to avoid any outlying and loose spores from reproducing.

Step 3: Clean it with white vinegar and warm water: Combine the same amount of white vinegar and warm water in a spray bottle, then spray it on the molded area of your wood furniture and leave it on for an hour. 

Step 4: Wipe it with towels: First, wipe with a moist towel. Make sure you get all the mold and vinegar mixture away. Afterward, you can use a dry towel to ensure there’s no moisture left on your wood furniture.

Some websites may suggest people use bleach for killing indoor molds on wood. However, bleach will damage the protective layer on the surface of solid wood furniture, therefore it is not recommended to do so.

How to Prevent Mold from Striving on Your Wooden Furniture?

Here are some wood furniture maintenance tips for you to keep mold away from your furniture:

  • Keep your room’s moisture level low using dehumidifiers, air conditioners, or fans: The key is to keep your room humidity below 55%. If you are using a dehumidifier, please be sure to empty the water collection container frequently, or else you will just be paying a high electricity bill for nothing.
  • Clean your furniture a few times a year: Wipe with a damp cloth to clean any dust or stain on the wood surface. Air-dry it right away to make sure no moisture is kept.

  • Keep some distance between your wooden furniture or wooden bed frame and the wall: Mold is often found near walls due to poorly insulated walls. A small gap between walls and furniture can help increase ventilation and reduce the chance of mold growing on the backside of furniture.

2. Pests and Bugs Growth:

Pests grow due to mold. Common mold-associated pests in Hong Kong include booklice, cris, flea, white ants, mold mites, and cockroaches. Some pests, for example cris (commonly known as bed bugs), appear in bed frames which may cause itchy and inflamed skin when you sleep. It will ultimately affect you and your family’s sleeping quality if the issue is neglected.

How to Get Rid of Pests in Your Wood Furniture?

  • Kill pests with heat: Using heat to treat pests is effective since most bugs cannot survive at above 60 degrees celsius. Iron and cloth steamers are common heat resources that you can find at home. You can wrap the iron or steamer with a towel to clean fabric furniture as well as your mattress if there are bed bugs. (Make sure you don’t set the temperature too high, or else you might leave a heat stain on the furniture piece)
  • Eliminate pests with heavy plastic: First, wrap the furniture or your wooden bed frame with plastic then expose it to sunlight. Pests will leave the wood and die inside the plastic since the temperature within is high.
  • Use pesticides for wood: Simply spray the wood with pesticides or bug bombs. We recommend wearing protective clothings that cover your arms and legs. Do remember to read the labels on the pesticides and understand how it should be used. 

How to Prevent Pests Growing on Your Wood Furniture?

Since pests are grown due to mold, the only method to stop them from appearing is to remove indoor mold. The best way is to keep humidity low so that moisture will not accumulate and it won’t be an ideal place for mold to stay. (Refer to the above for learning more about mold removal and prevention)

3. Damage to Wood Furniture:

High levels of humidity will lead to deformation and expansion of wood furniture. Wood absorbs moisture in the air and gradually expands. It can expand up to 1/50 of the furniture. If the furniture is being placed in a humid environment for a long period, it may become permanently swollen. Bear in mind that low humidity will also lead to the shrinking of solid wood, but it is less likely to happen in Hong Kong. 

How to Avoid Expansion of Your Wood Furniture?

Again, remember to keep the humidity low since everything happens because of humid weather. Make use of air conditioners and heaters to control the room temperature and humidity is all you can do. You may also consider adding a protective layer to your wood furniture if you haven’t already.

There are many ways to protect your furniture against humidity. However, the best way to prevent these problems from happening is to have a good piece of wood furniture, so that it can last for many years to come. Solid wood is the best among all wood furniture

Best Tips Is to Choose Your Wood Wisely

Solid wood is the ordinary lumber milled from trees, so it is completely natural. There is no hollow space in solid wood and this is why it is stronger and more expensive. North American hardwood is known for its durability since trees in North American forests are used to warm and humid weather. Common types of hardwoods used in furniture include oak, walnut, maple, beech, teak, etc. Before turning into a piece of furniture, the manufacturer normally will air dry and refine the hardwood by sanding, brushing, applying oil and finishing with protective coatings. Solid wood that goes over the kiln drying process has even higher durability because they have less moisture content in them which makes it harder for mold and mildew to grow. Solid wood furniture requires care and protection since wood finish is easily scratched.

Maintenance Tips to Take Care of Solid Wood

  1. Wipe and dust the wood furniture regularly since the dust pile will scratch wood surfaces.
  2. Keep your solid wood furniture away from any heating appliances as heat will cause wood warping.
  3. Polish the hardwood furniture with carnauba wax twice a year to keep it glassy.

If you are looking for a quality wood bed frame, Hush Home’s solid wood bed frame is perfect for you. Our solid wood bed frame is made from 100% sustainable top-graded North American hardwood. It is carefully handcrafted, fine-sanded and finished with 3 layers of safe protective coating. Moreover, it is double kiln-dried that helps to keep mold away from the surface.

Dealing with humidity is problematic and is a challenge for everyone here in Hong Kong. We hope that the tips provided regarding taking care of your wood furniture can help you. Get started and keep your furniture clean, so you can enjoy your wood furniture in the years ahead!