Slow care

8/21/2026

The time we lack the rest of the year

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Maintenance is the first thing to go when the days run. We notice a dull table, a tired parquet, a marked worktop, and we put it off. August, with its still hours and the emptier house, is when that postponement ends. It is not a chore, it is a different way of being among your things: slower, more attentive, almost manual.

Caring for a surface also means knowing it better. Hands learn the wood by passing a cloth over it, stone tells its porosity when it is treated, metal shows where time has touched it.

Wood asks for oil

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An oiled wooden top lives on this maintenance. A pass of the right oil, worked along the grain and left to soak in, gives depth back to the colour and protects against the season's stains. It is a simple gesture that changes how a table looks for months, and in summer, with the dry air, it is at its best.

Painted wood asks for less, but not for nothing: a careful clean, a check of edges and joints, attention to the spots where the sun hits. Every species has its rules, and they are worth knowing when you choose a piece meant to last.

Stone and porcelain

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Mineral surfaces seem eternal, and largely they are, but they too have their care. A porous marble needs protecting from rings, a natural stone likes a water-repellent treatment before summer, a large-format porcelain asks only for the right cleaner to avoid a film. These are materials that repay attention with decades of service.

Textiles before storing

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August is also the month when heavy fabrics give way to light ones, or the winter ones are prepared for their pause. Wash, air, store in the shade and dry: old gestures that lengthen the life of curtains, cushions and rugs. A clean, well-rolled rug passes through summer without suffering, and comes back in September as good as new.

Care is design

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There is a thread linking maintenance to the first choice. Honest materials, the ones that age well, are also the ones cared for with sensible gestures: they are oiled, treated, cleaned, and they improve. Materials that pretend, on the other hand, cannot be recovered once they wear. Choosing with future care in mind is already a form of design.

In our showroom

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In our showroom we tell this part too: how to keep what you buy. Every material has its care sheet, and knowing it before choosing helps you understand what you are taking home. A good purchase does not end at delivery, it begins there.

Read more: The floor speaks: materials, texture and the surface we inhabit and the Ter Hürne parquet made to last with essential maintenance.