We enjoyed a lovely little "stay-cation" after the craziness of the lead up to Christmas and relished in the pleasures of a Surf Coast holiday that so many pay top dollar to enjoy! With a little spare time up my sleeve, I finally got around to a job that I have been putting of for over 2 years mainly in the name of science but also to be honest a hint of laziness. As with many of those medical professionals who are themselves terrible patients, we are terrible at maintaining our furniture. Our beautiful dining table had not received a new coat of oil and wax in over 2.5 years since it was first cured and was looking quite dry, lackluster and right on the edge of no longer being water resistant. We had just been delivered a new lot of Osmo maintenance kits so I thought that it was well and truly time to try it out!

This fantastic kit contains 3 cloths, an abrasive pad, 1 litre of wash and care as well as a spray can of clean and protect. Click here to find out more about the Osmo natural oil and wax finish that we use on our timber furniture. You can buy your very own Osmo timber furniture maintenance kit via the link! The products shown here are for use on interior furniture. For maintenance of exterior furniture, please read out maintenance instructions page.

I started off by mixing 1 cap full of the wash and care with 1 litre of hot water and washed the surface down. This product has been designed specifically for cleaning timber that has been finished with Osmo so is very gentle and will not harm the surface. We had been doing a little bit of craft on the table so there was a little bit of glue and crayon as well as some previously unseen squashed avocado which I very gently removed with a scratch free scourer cloth.

maintenance of oil and wax finished furniture

I then dried the surface of the dining table with a clean tea towel to remove as much liquid as possible.

Once the surface had completely dried, I sprayed the Clean and Protect product from a height of 30cm over one half of the table. Using a clean cotton rag, I used a circular motion to rub the product in. I then repeated this last step on the other half of the table. There were a couple of sections that had a bit more wear and some light scratches that had not disappeared with the initially application. I sprayed the product onto the rag and applied it directly onto the scratched area in the same circular motion.

maintenance naturally finished timber furniture

The results....

I must say, I was very impressed with the product, it well and truly exceeded my expectations. It was so easy to apply and glided on easily without drying too quickly. Because it is in a spray form, it was very easy to achieve a consistent light coverage. The surface looked instantly revitalized with a regular tone and an enhancement of the grain patterns. The light surface scratches had faded away with only a couple of deep scratches still visible but much less so than before. A slight matt satin sheen resulted of which it did not have before with the surface feeling silky and not at all sticky. As the product was being applied there was a scent from the aerosol but there was not smell at all after they product had been rubbed in.

All in all I am very happy with my handy work and proceeded to quickly rejuvenate multiple other items within the house!

The before and after shots...

Here are some before images of an even more abused piece of furniture, our coffee table, that is at perfect toddler destruction height. There was a heap of scratch marks from where a wooden bowl had been placed that had been constantly pushed back and forward across the surface with the inevitable crumbs, dirt and sand trapped underneath by an over enthusiastic 2 year old.

And here are the afters... no trick photography, photoshop or any other image enhancement or alterations as 1- the results speak for themselves and 2- I would have no idea how to do it!