How to Clean Your Wall Decor Professionally

Hanging wall art and other forms of wall decor around the room is a great way to add the finishing touches to any home. Buying your favorite pieces of artwork to display on empty wall spaces can be very therapeutic and pleasing for a lot of people. So, why wouldn’t you want to take care of them?

Objects age and deteriorate, and your wall decor is no exception. Do you want your hanging artwork to last? And more importantly, wouldn’t you want to get your money’s worth out of all of the wall decor you bought?

Don’t hang up your wall decor and leave it for ruin. You can enjoy it for years to come…

It’s time for a little crash course on how to clean your wall decor professionally.

How to Care for Your Canvas

You know, they say that prevention is better than cure. And canvas prints look infinitely better with proper care, don’t they? So, before we tackle how to clean stains and dust off of canvas prints without damaging them, let’s tackle some tips on how to properly care for canvas prints first.

• Your canvas wall art is for indoor use: It’s not weatherproof. That means it’s susceptible to damage when it’s exposed to moisture and high humidity. If you’re not careful, you might find mildew and mold in them in a few years.
• Make sure your canvas prints avoid direct sunlight: Much like clothes, the prints fade quicker with time. Use soft and artificial lighting instead.
• DIY Restoring: You can touch-up slightly damaged canvas prints (scratched or nicked) with felt-tip marker of a similar color.

How to Clean a Canvas Print

For some homeowners, their proudly displayed canvas prints are the icing on the cake for their home’s interior design. And if you’re one of these people, then you know how vital it is to keep everything in the house neat and tidy — including the wall art hanging above your living room sofa.

But how do you do that exactly?

Here’s how you can clean off the stains, grime, and the dust from your precious canvas prints.

Clearing the Dust

For clearing your canvas prints free of dirt, use a slightly damp cloth. Fabric made of cotton or microfiber works best, and also keeps you from damaging your items. And when you’re using the cloth, avoid spraying water directly onto the piece of artwork. Dampen the cloth instead, and gently run it over the canvas print.

Another way to dust off the front of the print is to use a very soft bristle brush.

Cleaning Deeper Stains

Harsh chemicals and cleaners you use to scrub your bathroom floors will do more damage than clean a mess. Stay away from them. If you need deeper cleans, it’s wiser to contact people who specialize in art and find someone who can remove the stains for you.

Removing Water Stains

If your canvas is raw (not printed — in other words), this is what you can do.

Place your canvas on a flat surface. And if it’s stretched already, place a neatly folded terry towel beneath the spotted area for extra support. This is so it absorbs excess water too. Fill a bowl with warm and clear soapy water, and dab the solution on the edges of the stain. Proceed to blot it dry in between repeated dabs. And when you’re finished, just leave the canvas sitting up to air-dry them.

How to Clean Paintings

The easiest solution to this is to clean up an acrylic or oil painting on canvas with white cotton cloth soaked in soapy water. For soap, try and see if you can get your hands on olive oil-based soap.

They take off grime effectively. Also, be careful about cleaning paintings with thick impasto, in order to avoid breaking hardened paint. And to get into crevasses, just use Q-tips.

If the stains and the dirt is deeper than what you first thought, it would be smarter to see an art restorer to clean the product with art cleaning solutions and reapplying pigment colors where needed.

How to Store Artwork and Other Wall Decor Correctly

If you plan to put a lot of your things into storage, and keep the valuable pieces of art, you can do so without damaging them. The best way to store art is to keep them in dry places. Also, make sure to do these:

• Wrap them in brown paper.
• Secure it even further with bubble wrap.
• Place the frame corners on the four corners (if they have frame corners)
• Keep them in solid boxes.

And for unframed works, like panels or canvas wall art, use plastic sleeves. Put them in acid-free cardboard boxes too.

Take Care of Your Wall Decor

For art lovers and savvy homeowners, investing in art pieces that you love is never a waste. With that in mind, keeping them in prime condition so they can last longer just becomes even more important, doesn’t it? Preserving wall decor found around the house is as important as fixing leaks in your roof.

A home that is bereft of the beauty of art just won’t be complete.

Author Bio:

Alison Brown is the brains behind Panel Wall Art — one of the world’s biggest creators and manufacturers of high-quality canvas art prints. She manages a team of highly creative professionals, designers, and skillful artists. Aside from writing about fine art, she’s also really into improving home decor, and Star Wars.