All we need is a few items to be able to clean your furniture the right way! The best part is that you probably have all the items in your house already! In 4 simple steps, you will be able to clean & polish your wood furniture at home.

Here are the cleaning supplies you’ll need:

• Vacuum cleaner or Clean cloth
• Bucket for water (at least 1 gallon)
• Half a gallon of warm water
• Soft cloth (brand new and clean ones)
• White vinegar
• Furniture polisher and cleaner

Step One: Remove dust with vacuum or a clean cloth.

Vacuum the wood furniture and remove the dust. This step is very important because it will give you a clean, dust-free surface to work with. Gently remove the dust from the wood surface and cracks! Use the appropriate vacuum attachment, so you don’t end up scratching your furniture. If you don’t have a vacuum or don’t want to take it out, you can use a damp cloth as a very good option. Slightly wet your cloth and gently remove the dust, make sure you don’t over water – over watering wood can harm it if it slips into the finish.

Read more

Congratulations on buying your new solid wood bedroom furniture set. Doesn’t it look great? Well, it did look great until you assembled the new bed and realized your old mattress is older than the hills. Use this opportunity to invest in yourself and your health by purchasing a high-quality mattress.

A Mattress Buying Guide to Enjoy a Better Night’s Sleep.

A good night’s sleep is nothing to joke about. The more we learn about the importance of sleep, the more attention that is paid to investing in a high-quality mattress that is the right size for you and your sleeping partner. Here are the things you should consider when purchasing a new wood furniture set and mattress.

Bigger is better.

According to The Better Sleep Council, “Buying a too-small mattress is one of the biggest mistakes new bed-buyers make.” So many couples get used to sleeping on a double or queen size mattress. In fact, if you work out the proportional dimensions, you may find that you and your partner have less room per person than a baby in a crib. Unless your bedroom space prohibits you from purchasing a larger bed, The Better Sleep Council recommends:

– Double beds. For children and single sleepers only. They can work as a guest room bed in a pinch.

– Queen size beds. Even queen size beds are best suited for guest room beds or for single sleepers who consider themselves “sprawlers.” The only exception to this are couples that are determined snugglers and prefer sleeping in close quarters.

– King size beds. In most cases, a king size bed is the best option for those who sleep with a partner. They offer the most room for each person to sleep without being disturbed by the other. They are also ideal for couples whose children may be “guest sleepers” or for those who allow their pets to have bed privileges. If you and/or your partner are tall, you may want to consider a California King, which 4-inches longer than a traditional king.

Read more

You’ll be hard pressed to meet anyone who hasn’t become obsessed with HGTV design shows. Not only is it fun to live vicariously through the show’s participants, it’s a great way to get ideas about how to achieve your own TV show-worthy living spaces.

There’s no doubt about it, though, kitchens and bathrooms get the bulk share of the remodeling attention while master bedroom spaces are often left in the dark.

Treat Yourself To a Romantic & Relaxing Bedroom Oasis With These 5 Tips

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, we feel it’s time to spread the interior design love to one of the home’s most neglected spaces – The Bedroom. If your bedroom has become the catch-all for unfolded laundry, outdated magazines you have yet to comb through and last year’s scrapbooking project – we dedicate this blog to you!

These 5 tips will help you enjoy one of your most relaxing and luxurious Valentine’s Days yet.

Read more

Making the decision to buy custom wood furniture is a smart one. These are the furniture pieces that your household will enjoy for a generation and then some. Now, your mission is to select the wood type that best matches the look and style you want, while also blending with your family’s lifestyle and furniture habits.

Choose the Best Wood For Your Look, Style and Living Habits

The following can serve as a cheat sheet as you peruse furniture stores and catalogs, determining which types of wood will be best for your home. Of course, you can always come visit Millbank Family Furniture for personalized assistance whenever you need it.

Before we talk about the individual types of wood, let’s talk a bit about wood in general. These are the things you’ll want to keep in mind as you shop for your solid wood furniture pieces:

Hardness

You’ve heard the term hardwoods and softwoods? As you can imagine, in most cases, hardwoods are harder (more durable) than softwoods, although there are exceptions. Fruiting trees are hardwoods, conifers are softwoods. So you can picture picking up a piece of pine (light and easily scratched) versus a plank of oak (much heavier and harder to ding) and get an idea as to how this translates into furniture quality and expression.

Read more

Once you get your solid wood furniture home, you want to maintain the same gorgeous finish and glow that drew your eye in the first place. The good news is that your furniture will last a lifetime, and possibly several more lifetimes, with proper cleaning and care.

5 Steps To Keep Solid Wood Furniture Looking Like New

The following are 5 simple steps that will keep your wood furniture looking as appealing as the day you bought it. Is a particular piece of furniture giving you trouble? Stop by Millbank Family Furniture and we’ll be happy to give you our recommendations.

1. Create a wood-friendly climate in your home.

Wood expands when it’s warm or wet and contracts when it’s cold and dry. Overtime, the repeated stress of even miniscule expansions and contractions will take their toll on your hardwood furniture, causing it to crack along the grains. To prevent this, keep your HVAC system in good shape and try to maintain a moderate temperature and humidity level in your home year-round.

Read more

Before your wood furniture takes its place in your home, it exists in nature as up to 80% water. In fact, the average weight of a freshly cut log – or green wood, as it’s referred to in the industry – is about 50% water.

Of course, over time, the wood dries out and this drying out or curing process is very important; the wood used to build high-quality furniture should be cured such that it can handle the typical humidity fluctuations in your home or business.

Why and How is Wood Affected by Humidity?

Wood is porous, which means it can absorb moisture from its surrounding environment. Just like a dried carrot can become rehydrated in your soup pot, untreated, cured wood can swell up if your house is too humid or it is exposed to extreme moisture on your porch, in a garage or in a non-weatherproofed storage building.

Conversely, if you live in an exceptionally dry climate, your wood can dry out beyond the manufacturer’s specifications, which will cause it to shrink or contract.

Wood is most dramatically affected between the grains, rather than along their length, which is why wood that has expanded and contracted will typically crack or split right along its own wood grain patterns.

So, what can you do to protect your hardwood furniture from unsightly – and damaging – cracking, warping or splitting?

Can I Protect Solid Wood Furniture From Humidity Damage?

There are several things you can do to protect your solid wood furniture pieces from humidity fluctuations:

1. Buy high-quality furniture from a reputable source

As mentioned in the beginning, your wood furniture’s resistance to humidity fluctuations begins with the curing process. Typical hardwoods are cured to a 10% moisture content.

Cheaper wood furniture is often cured too fast or not long enough, resulting in “green” wood that will appear dried out within a year or two, regardless of the measures you take.

If the factory cures it too fast, using higher-than-recommended kiln temperatures, you’ll have the opposite problem. Purchasing your furniture from a reputable store or vendor will ensure the wood used to build your furniture was cured correctly.

Read more

The price tag for a custom-built or high-quality standard office desk is noticeably different from the price tag on those “We Ship To You!” alternatives. Odds are, once you get your cheap desk out of the box – in 500 pieces – and begin putting the pressed particleboard and faux-wood laminated pieces together, you’ll realize why.

The reality is that cheap office desk furniture can never compete with a solidly made counterpart that will last for decades.

An Office Desk and Furniture Buying Guide For Those Who Want a Piece (or Pieces) That Last

Here’s a secret for you: If you invest right now in a high-quality desk from an exceptional local furniture store, you’ll never have to buy new office furniture again. In other words, it’s investing in high-quality office furniture is the most affordable way to go because it saves you the repeat buys of overseas-manufactured pieces that hardly last at all.

Here are the things you’ll want to look for when shopping for an office desk and complementary furniture you’ll love forever:

1. Measure your space

Accurately measure the dimensions of your office space, including the height of the ceiling. This will help us select furniture that is in proportion to the room.

Buying office furniture that is the right size and dimensions for your office space will go a long way toward keeping your office looking spacious, organized and uncluttered.

Read more

Has your kitchen table seen better days? Sounds like it’s time to head to a reputable furniture store to select the next generation of kitchen table furniture that will serve as the heart of “the heart of the home”.

Your kitchen table is an important purchase; it’s the place where couples or families gather to share meals, enjoy quiet cups of morning coffee, do homework or discuss important future plans. It’s also a staple piece of your kitchen’s interior design.

Tips for Selecting the Right Kitchen Table Furniture Set for Your Kitchen and Your Life

If you make the right choice now, this will be the last one you ever buy. A well-made table with a timeless design can be refinished and/or repainted to suit the more transitional tastes throughout your life while the body of the table remains unchanged.

Here are some tips for choosing a table that will work in your household’s kitchen for decades to come.

1. The placement

Unlike formal dining room furniture, which is the star of the show, your kitchen table is one important player in a room filled with other important players like countertops, islands, cabinets, etc. It’s a busy place so you want to make sure that your table size and placement works for the way your kitchen is used.

Keep in mind that you want about 36-inches from a scooted-in chair back to surrounding walls, countertops, cabinets or people who are passing by.

Read more

Re-vamping your household entertainment center is pretty exciting. It often means the addition of high-tech toys and gadgets you’ve been dreaming about for years. To make your entertainment center, or home theater area, the very best, you’ll need to concentrate a bit on the aesthetics – as well as the toys.

Steps to Buying or Customizing Your Entertainment Center Furniture

If the time has come to customize your entertainment center furniture, we recommend visiting our showroom at Millbank Family Furniture. Sure, you may be able to find some great deals online, but we can’t tell you the amount of times we’ve had customers in here purchasing furniture and furnishings in person after a horrible online experience. It’s always best to make these types of long-term decisions in person and with the assistance of tried-and-true professionals.

Without the ability to “try them on,” your entertainment center furniture can look ill proportioned and not-quite-right for your home design. Plus, you need a chance to sit down and relax on a sofa or chair in order to know if it will pass muster for your family’s traditional movie marathon nights.

Steps to Purchasing Entertainment Center That Will Last

1. Work With a Custom Furniture Store

When you work with a “real” custom furniture store, like ours, you get the benefit of design professionals who can help you select furnishings that match the rest of your interior design. You also have the opportunity to order high-quality custom pieces, finishes and upholstery that are never available at big box stores.

Read more