STAINLESS steel is used for the frames and legs of these dining chairs and their dining table. These are the parts that get kicked and bumped often. Metal-framed pieces are quite popular and accessible, and surprisingly affordable.
Due to the popular demand on last week’s subject, I’m adding a few nuggets to my list of guidelines on practical ways to furnish your condo unit—this time leaning toward functional use and maintenance.
Furnishings in condo units can wear out fast, most especially when the unit is being leased out. One can only hope for a careful and considerate tenant who will value and appreciate all the furnishings you have put inside. Other than being hopeful, you can look into making your rental unit resilient and trouble free.
1 Use hard materials for tabletops and countertops. Most wood tops in the market are not hardwood so they’ll likely be beaten up by the time you’re ready to take in another tenant. Having to refurbish stained (varnished) timber is troublesome, and restoring it to its original state will be difficult, especially if it was damaged with deep scratches. Glass tops are easier to maintain and also easier to replace when they break. Natural stone is ideal because of its elegance, but even solid surface material (the likes of Corian) will do, especially if your unit has a hip and modern theme.
2 Look for metal for frames and legs of furniture. These are the parts that get kicked and bumped often. Metal framed pieces are quite popular and accessible, and surprisingly affordable.
3 Use commercial grade fabrics. They don’t stain as quickly as fabric made purely from natural fiber, which is usually used for residential grade fabrics. They are easier to wash or shampoo, and their fibers won’t easily fray. Look for how the number of “rubs” the fabric can withstand (this is a standard test for fabrics and your supplier should be able to give you that information) in which case 20,000 to 40,000 is good enough for your purpose. Commercial grade fabrics also are usually fire retardant—a safety feature well-appreciated in the era of scented candles and aromatherapy burners.
4 Opt for CFL (compact fluorescent lighting) or LED (light emitting diode) lighting over incandescent or halogen. Incandescent is already being phased out in many other countries due to its high power consumption. Same goes with halogen, which on top of high consumption, also produces a lot of heat. The ideal would be to use LED lights, which are the most environment-friendly source of light. A 7-watt LED bulb will give you as much lumen brightness as a 50-watt halogen bulb.
5 Use fixed shower heads and spouts. Hand-held shower heads may be helpful when bathing but very impractical to maintain. The exposed flexible pipes eventually become filthy, and even rip at the joints. The rods they are hung-on or clipped into allowing for adjustments in height, eventually loosen and cause the shower heads to slip down.
6 Metal can be quite deceiving as different metals—stainless steel, aluminum and chromed mild steel—look similar. Sometimes even the sales people in the shops don’t know the difference. When buying, look first at those made of stainless steel, as they will not rust nor corrode from all the bath amenity chemicals. Yes, they’re more expensive, but they will last your unit’s lifetime. Chrome would be a next option as they are easy to clean. Aluminum will eventually corrode with the chemicals, and likely, sooner than a chromed piece will. Look for pieces with fixed parts because they are not only trouble-free, but are also no bane to safety. Loose glass shelves, soap dishes or glass cups on racks tend to get hit and topple.
7 Repaint your walls in a sateen finish. Semi-gloss finishes can look tacky because they will show all the imperfections. A matte or flat finish won’t do that, but it will capture all the dirt. I like mixing a half-part semi-gloss latex paint to a half part flat paint to achieve a “sateen” finish—enough sheen to clean after, but matte enough to hide wall imperfections. It is also softer on the eyes. While at it, change your wall color so you can stand out and have a different character as against other rentable units that kept their walls in the as-delivered paint finish and color.
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