Caring for leather and hardwood through harmattan

Between December and February the air here gets dry enough to pull moisture out of everything you own. Furniture is no exception, and the damage is cumulative.

Hardwood

Wood shrinks as it dries, and it shrinks across the grain rather than along it. On a wide tabletop that can open a hairline gap at a join. This is normal and it closes again when the humidity returns — it is not a defect, and it is not worth panicking about.

What you can do:

• Keep large pieces out of direct sun during harmattan. A tabletop half in sun and half in shade dries unevenly, and uneven drying is what causes cupping.
• Re-oil hardwax-oiled surfaces once at the start of the season. A cloth, a thin coat, twenty minutes.
• Do not put a humidifier next to a piece to "fix" it. Localised humidity is worse than uniform dryness.

Leather

Leather is skin, and it cracks for the same reason skin does. Full-grain leather that is conditioned twice a year will last decades; leather that is never conditioned will craze along the seat front within about four years.

• Condition at the start and end of harmattan with a pH-neutral leather conditioner. Not saddle soap, not olive oil, not petroleum jelly.
• Dust weekly with a dry cloth. Harmattan dust is abrasive, and grinding it into leather every time you sit is what wears the finish.
• Keep it away from the direct blast of an air conditioner.

Fabric

Vacuum with a brush head monthly. Rotate loose cushions so they compress evenly. Treat spills by blotting outward from the edge — rubbing sets the stain into the weave.

What we cover

Every piece we build carries a five-year structural guarantee on the frame. That guarantee assumes reasonable care, which is essentially the list above. We will also come and re-oil or re-condition anything we built, at cost, anywhere in Osun State.