This Unexpected $2 Bathroom Tool Made My Living Room Furniture Look Brand New

For a year after my family moved into our new home, we had an empty room. Last fall, though, the space began to come together when my daughter and I found a rug we both loved. It became our casual “formal” living room (as opposed to the family room with a TV) and it started to fill up from there. However, as with any space, living in it shows you things you never could have known without spending time there. 

This is the case with the two blue swivel chairs we chose for the area in front of the bay window. The color is perfect, they’re comfortable (and believe me, I’m picky), and they’re exactly what the space needed to feel complete. But cleaning them is far more involved than I anticipated. 

The dark color shows dirt and dog fur. In fact, the two blue chairs are the only place I notice dog fur around the house! And vacuuming it isn’t easy. The fur gets stuck in the nap of the upholstery’s weave and even when I run the brush bar over the cushions in various directions, it doesn’t lift it all. On top of that, the fabric pills! 

The chairs are high-maintenance. I have a de-pilling tool, but when I first noticed the pilling on the blue chairs, I couldn’t find it. Luckily, though, I remembered a trick I’d heard about how to de-pill textiles with something I did have: a pumice stone, one of my favorite cleaning tools.

Pumice stones can be used to remove baked-on grease in ovens, burnt stains on dishes, and even lint from sweaters. So, with nothing to lose, I decided to try it on my blue chairs. I held the pumice stone to brush the fabric with the long end. I brushed in short, strong strokes, over the same area several times. 

The results were so much more than I expected! Not only did the lint come off super easily (soon I could pull tufts of it off the pumice stone), but the stone removed the fur as well! Excitedly, I continued brushing the upholstery. When I was done, the chairs looked renewed. I did need to vacuum the chairs again because the stone created some dust residue that was left behind on the chair, but I didn’t mind.  

I’m thrilled to have this technique in my arsenal and it’s one that (unfortunately) I’ll probably be using weekly. But it’s so easy to do that I almost don’t mind. I’m definitely keeping my pumice stone handy for de-pilling my blue chairs and any other furniture that needs it.