We just got our new, free, furniture: bookshelves! We’ve been using a shoe cabinet for over a year and a half now, so it’s nice to have a real place for books… somewhere they can actually stand up so we can see all the titles!
The shelves are old wooden crates, stacked with pegs. (The stools are old-new too, but they were bought v. free… mostly included cuz they’re neat, hand-made, second-hand, and they fold up!) The wood looked dusty, but after dusting and cleaning them all, they looked the same! That’s when I did research online and combined advice from several different sites to figure out a furniture polish recipe. It didn’t work, so I experimented until it did! Here’s the resulting recipe, which worked GREAT:
natural furniture polish recipe
2 parts vinegar + 1 part oil + 1 part water
I started with 2 Tbsp white vinegar, 1 Tbsp olive oil, and 1 Tbsp water. I first cleaned the shelves with my regular vinegar & water spray, and let them dry. Then I stirred this furniture polish with a chopstick in a small bowl, dipped a clean cloth into it, and began polishing! You can’t really tell the difference until it’s dry, but then you can tell.
note: Test this out in a small area. If it doesn’t seem to ever dry, but always feels greasy to the touch, you may need to add more vinegar or try less oil next time. This formula was perfect for me. I’ve heard of people using apple vinegar instead of white and vegetable oil instead of olive. Let me know if you try it!
Before/after shots:
On the left side, I’ve cleaned and polished. The right side was cleaned but not polished.
1) before polish
2) after polish
Simply Lori Ann 