6/16/2023
First of all, it would be good to specify that there are different types of wooden beams that can characterize our ceilings: from laminated wood, to solid wood, to the very simple fake wood beams. (To find out more, take a look at our blog on exposed wooden beams https://www.idwitalia.com/en/exposed-beams-some-ideas-to-draw-inspiration-from). Obviously, if we are faced with solid wood beams, typical of rustic houses, maintenance will be slightly more delicate, since they are more subject to cracking and, consequently, threatened by sticky resin, which may need to be removed with great delicacy.

However, generally, proper cleaning of wooden beams is essential in order to keep them intact and impeccable over time. The first step to start from, when we try to clean wooden beams, is certainly the removal of dust: even if nobody thinks about it since we usually walk on the floors and not on the ceilings, in addition to removing the dust with a special duster, it is really very useful to vacuum up wooden beams and ceilings (in general it is advisable to carry out this action on any ceiling), helping us with a small nozzle for the more tricky points, so as to remove the dust and dirt that accumulates in the time.

Unlike common floors, except for parquet, which are used to being washed with a rag, wood does not get along well with water, as it could swell and ruin it, as well as causing the formation of halos and stains in the wood. Therefore, if we are faced with excessively dirty beams, it would be good to contact a professional. However, a possible solution could be to use a slightly damp microfibre cloth (possibly one that does not release hateful lint to remove) to remove stubborn dust, leaving the windows open for many hours, thus making sure to let the beams dry perfectly. avoiding humidity problems.

As regards maintaining the vividness of the wood and any problems of aging or deterioration caused by woodworm, the key word is hydration: an anti-woodworm oil could prevent any unpleasant attacks and, once dried, thanks to the fact that the pores of the wood will thus be open, we subsequently recommend the application of natural oils, absolutely non-aggressive, capable of hydrating the wood in the best possible way, giving it shine and reducing the sense of aging to the eye.

Finally, once the natural oil we have applied has dried completely and perfectly, we could think of repainting it with protective products based on beeswax, which give our beams an innovative and shiny air.

Interior Designer since 1985
CEO & Founder, Italian Design in the World
Open a catalogue of contemporary homes and you often find cover-worthy kitchens, theatrical bathrooms, living rooms that look like photo sets. Between one image and the next, a narrow corridor appears, lit by a sad single point — or a vestibule reduced to a knot between doors. That is not a technical detail: it is silent design about what life spends most of its time doing — passing through, pausing, shifting register, leaving one room before entering another.
Open plan has dominated the image of the contemporary home: few walls, few boundaries, maximum flexibility. The promise was freedom — kitchen in dialogue with the living room, light flowing, no "closed" rooms. Over time many have discovered the downside: noise travelling, no refuge, difficulty concentrating or switching off. The response isn't to go back to the closed-off house of the past, but to rethink the value of dedicated spaces: environments with a clear function that the body and mind learn to recognise.
Interior design has long favoured sight: colours, shapes, surfaces. Only recently have we started to talk about touch and smell. Hearing, by contrast, remains the most neglected sense at the design stage — yet it's the one we can't switch off. We live in homes that boom, reverberate, carry voices and noise from one room to another. The result is stress, fatigue, difficulty concentrating and resting.
For decades interior design has chased the idea of a "perfect", unchanging space: same colours, same lights, same layout twelve months a year. The home as a photo set always ready, but often distant from the cycles that govern our body and our mood.Today a different idea is returning: the house as an organism that responds to the seasons. Not an aesthetic whim, but a response to the need to align the environments we live in with natural rhythms — light, temperature, colour, vegetation — with measurable benefits for sleep, concentration and wellbeing.March, with the equinox and the awakening of spring, is the ideal time to rethink interiors in a seasonal key.
For years, interior design has lived with a contradiction: an obsession with effect. Marble-effect. Wood-effect. Metal-effect. Stone-effect. A home that looks like something, rather than truly being something.
For years, we designed homes as if they had to pass a constant visual exam: perfect light, perfect white, the right chair, the right vase. Interiors built to be photographed more than lived in. Digital aesthetics — polished, minimal, hyper-ordered — entered interior design like an unspoken rule: if it isn’t “clean,” it isn’t beautiful; if it isn’t coherent, it isn’t successful; if it can’t be shown, it isn’t desirable.In 2026, this narrative is losing its power. Not because beauty matters less, but because beauty alone is no longer enough. A new need is emerging: anti-algorithm interiors, spaces not designed for the shot, but for everyday life. Less performative homes, more real ones. Environments that don’t seek approval — they restore energy.This is not a return to chaos. It’s a return to meaning.