Water Ring Protection

Easily protect wood furniture with glass tops. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Water Ring Protection

A friend recently bemoaned that a party at her house ended with a number of water rings from drinks marring her grandmother’s antique furniture. I have a few of those myself but I also have a plan to prevent that from happening again.

This look familiar?

Water ring damage to a wood radio cabinet can be fixed two ways. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Makes you want to cringe, doesn’t it. I know it does me.

Even if you have coasters, and hand them to people, and place them under their drinks, for some reason glasses end up on wood leaving their mark.

The good news is that I know how to fix those water rings with Howard Furniture Refinishing products, which we offer in these handy Furniture Refinishing Gift Kits. To make it easy for you, the gift kit has everything you need to refinish one piece of wood furniture, something we have been doing with Howard furniture refinishing products for several decades now.

Before I refinish, though, I take another step. I order a glass cover so that I have it in hand before I start the refinishing process. This way I make the repairs and protect the piece of furniture from future damage with glass and don’t get caught up in forgetting to get the glass - or putting it off - after I get the piece refinished.

To order the glass, take careful measurements knowing the glass cutters will get the glass piece as close to the size you provide them as you can. You can get glass pieces cut at any glass store. If in doubt, go in and chat with them to find out what they can do and how they like to handle furniture pieces.

When I started with one of these folding round tables, I cheated two ways. First, I took the table in so they could get the correct measurements and secondly, I ordered the poly plastic as opposed to glass. I wasn’t sure how safe it was to put glass on a side table that easily folded over. Turns out what was a good call especially when two cats are chasing each other and decide to take a nose dive from the chair into the side table.

The plastic protects the center of the side table and easily falls off without breaking when the table is knocked over. I keep it in place with one of the rubber feet used to keep pictures on walls.

If unsure, try a poly cut first to make sure it will work with your furniture. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

For non-moving tables, I still drag those into the glass shop for them to take the correct measurements, especially ones that have odd shapes. Be ready to chat about where the furniture piece came from, my glass shop loves to hear the stories behind the furniture pieces and sometimes make me an offer to buy it from me.

No such luck, the ones I have I plan to keep.

There are two sizes of glass available, at least at my glass store; 1/8th inch and 1/4 inch.

I order the 1/4 inch for those pieces of furniture that will get a lot of wear, mostly coffee tables.

This is a vintage 1920s art deco table I can now easily use without worrying the top will get damaged now that it has a glass cover.

Take the furniture in to get a good fit with unusual shapes. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The 1/4 inch glass also makes excellent tops for unusual furniture pieces, such as using trunks for tables.

Trunks are great places to story extra bedding and handmade quilts. We grew up moving and each child was given one trunk to hold all of our precious possessions, which may explain why I like trunks. I have them for storing Christmas decorations, bee club materials, handmade quilts and a tiny trunk that holds a plastic bag with catnip toys. My cats get very excited when the tiny trunk comes down from the bookcase and the toys come out.

I found this trunk at a sale at a neighbor’s house and had it stored in my basement for several years storing wrapping paper. The trunk has a multi-level surface so adding glass makes it flat and now usable as a coffee table and side table.

Not sure what’s stored in there now, I should check.

Repurpose trunks as side tables by adding a glass top. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

This is a new white cedar trunk that someone embellished by adding feet and lettering on the top. I liked the trunk for a coffee table in a guest room so added 1/4 inch glass to protect the top. This way if the plant gets over watered or someone spills a drink, it should not damage the trunk finish and lettering.

Trunks with glass also make handy coffee tables. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Simple 1/4 glass pieces like this cost $25-50, which to me is an excellent investment to preserve the older wood pieces I have.

To clean, I use a glass cleaner and newspapers, just as one would clean window glass.

If you don’t like the edges, you can ask them to round them off for an additional fee. I don’t tend to get them rounded off because they fit snuggly on corners and I don’t have any young ones in the house.

Glass corners can be rounded if you don’t like the basic cut. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

It’s simple enough to get those corners rounded for another $15-30 per glass piece.

Those quarter-size clear circles are provided free and they keep the glass off the wood so that the wood doesn’t get scratched.

The last time I was in the glass store, I said something tot he effect that I have all of my surfaces protected in glass now and may not be coming in for awhile. The glass employee carrying the glass piece out to my car said “nah, you’ll have another project in here in no time.”

How right he was!

Charlotte