I am absolutely nuts for Lucite furniture. I have such a weakness for the stuff that I have had to put myself on a Lucite diet — only one small piece per room — lest I cross over into full-on Liberace circa 1974 mode.
While there are so many fantastic pieces of Lucite being sold right now (check out Furniture Focus: Acrylic and Lucite Furniture), my particular penchant is for the vintage pieces.
As Anna pointed out last week in her fantastic post Quick History: Lucite, this magical material has been used in furnishings and décor since it’s introduction in 1937. As a result, it’s relatively easy to find some really unique antique and vintage Lucite pieces to call your own.
What I’ve struggled with, however, is finding a way to clean and/or repair all the little scratches and dings that inevitably occur with older Lucite pieces. Products like Brillianize claim to be made especially to clean and polish Lucite and acrylic to a glossy sheen, but I wonder how effective—and more importantly, how safe to use-- they really are.
Do you love vintage Lucite? How do you keep your pieces in tip-top shape? Have you had any Lucite cleaning disasters? Share your hard-won wisdom with us!
Image: Benjamin Moore via DecorPad and Style at Home
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Soap and warm water work just fine for cleaning. Then dry thoroughly with a microfiber cleaning cloth. Novus Plastic polishes are great for removing scratches and or dullness. They also sell a buffing kit that attaches to most household drills.
I work in a folk art gallery and we clean and polish the plexiglass display cases with a polish made just for this purpose. It also removes small scratchs.
usually not a big Lucite fan, but i really love both of the pieces in that picture
What is this, Lucite month? I feel like this is the third post I've seen, with 2 and 3 being fairly similar.
The beauty of acrylic furniture is that it can be polished and scratches can be buffed out to renew the look. We recommend Novus 3-step polish and scratch remover compound for our customers. In our factory we a buffing compound by Matchless with a high RPM rotating cloth wheel and we use Novus for final cleaning/polishing.
Learn more about caring and repairing acrylic furniture here: http://www.plexi-craft.com/about-acrylics-custom-lucite-tables.html
-Ethan
Plexi-Craft
I seen, but haven't used a three-part cleaning and polishing kit for lucite at the Container Store.
http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10025445&N=&Ntt=polish
I have only one piece of lucite furniture, and I love it dearly. It's a chrome and lucite coffee table I found on clearance for half price. I've had it for a few years now and with my full house hold it's earned lots of character in the way of scratches. I use the Novus cleaners and polishers to bring back the shine and erase the scratches.