Care & Maintenance

Caring for Lacquer Furniture | Casey Grace Studios

Casey Grace Studios

Caring for Your Lacquer Furniture

Our finish is fully catalyzed (2K) lacquer — a professional finishing system used in fine furniture and automotive applications for its extraordinary depth of color and decades-long durability. We use a water-based lacquer that delivers all the hardness and durability of solvent-based systems, without the harmful VOCs for our team or any off-gassing in your home. Lacquer is not the same as paint — learn the difference here. This page covers how to clean lacquer furniture, how to protect the finish long-term, and how to use the touch-up kit that arrived with your piece.

Don't have a touch-up kit? If your piece arrived before we introduced The Revival Kit, see this section.
Casey Grace Studios finish spray and care products

Daily habits

How to clean lacquer furniture — day to day.

  • Dust often with a soft microfiber cloth.
  • Wipe up standing water quickly — left to sit, it can cloud the finish.
  • For fingerprints and everyday grime, use the finish spray included with your piece.
  • For spills, a small amount of dish soap, warm water, and a very soft cloth works best.
  • Use coasters and our recommended plastic dots for anything that might mar the surface.
  • Keep nail polish and especially acetone remover away from your lacquer furniture — it will melt the finish.
  • Avoid solvent-based sprays and any cleanser containing ammonia or harsh chemicals — these will dull the finish permanently.

See Recommended Products for all items described here.

Casey Grace Studios finish spray and microfiber cloth

A note on scratches. Minor scratches or scuffs may be able to be professionally buffed out, much like refinishing a hardwood floor. Read What to Expect from Our Refinished Vintage Furniture

Protecting the finish

Protective Dots

Plastic feet, felt pads, and other protectors may have plasticizers in them that trigger a chemical reaction with your lacquer finish. We've seen this on lacquer products from high-end brands as well. But we've found the dots that will not affect our finish.

Check out our Recommended Products list →

Plastic label stain on lacquer finish

Williams-Sonoma Lacquer Tray stained by a plastic label.

Tempered Glass Tops or Shelves

A glass top is one of the best ways to protect a lacquer finish long-term. We recommend OneDayGlass.com with these specs:

Glass Specs

✦  1/4" tempered glass for tops

✦  2/8" tempered glass for shelves

✦  Pencil-polished edges

✦  Do not purchase their plastic spacer dots — order ours instead. Theirs will react with the finish and leave a permanent mark.

Tempered glass top on lacquer furniture

Professional Movers

Never let plastic wrap touch the finish directly. Moving blankets are safe — plastic is not.

Ask your movers to wrap the body of the piece in moving blankets, then secure the blankets with plastic wrap over the top. The plastic should never make direct contact with the lacquered surface.

No plastic should ever touch the finish. Even briefly. Even through tissue. If your mover isn't sure, show them this page.

Furniture wrapped correctly in moving blankets

Don't have a touch-up kit? If your piece was delivered before we introduced The Revival Kit, you can order a professional touch-up pen or pot matched to your finish at MyPerfectColor.com.

To find your exact color name, number, and manufacturer, look up your piece in our Reclaimed collection. Under the description of every item is a dropdown for Color — click it to see the information you'll need.

On MyPerfectColor, identify the manufacturer first. On the next page, enter the color name from that manufacturer. The specs we recommend are: Spray, OEM, Bottles & Pens + Paint Pens + Gloss. Follow their manufacturer recommendations for application. The instructions below are written for our kit specifically, so if you're using a different product, follow the manufacturer's directions instead.

Before you begin

How to touch up catalyzed lacquer furniture.

All real wood furniture expands and contracts with humidity and temperature change. You may see small cracks surface at the original construction joints of your piece over time — this is completely normal behavior for solid wood, and it's exactly what your touch-up kit is for. Learn what to expect from a refinished vintage piece →

Lacquer vs. paint — why it matters for touch-ups. Lacquer is chemically different from paint — it dries fast on the surface but cures over time, hardening into the layers beneath it. Thin coats, patience, and a light touch are everything here. For a deeper dive, read our blog post: Furniture Paint vs. Lacquer: What's the Difference.

Photo

The Revival Kit contents laid out flat.
Clean overhead shot, all items visible.

Before you open the can

Shake the can vigorously, holding the lid shut, before opening — this redistributes any solids that may have settled to the bottom. Once open, don't leave the can sitting open for more than 10 minutes at a time.

Three steps to a clean touch-up

  1. Sand the area lightly using the 2000-grit sanding pad provided.
  2. Clean with a damp rag to remove all dust. Let the area dry fully before moving on.
  3. Apply one very thin coat using the provided sponge brush. Less is always more — the foam brush will leave marks if overloaded.

Photo or Video

Short how-to video or step-by-step photos showing sanding, wiping, and applying lacquer.

Timing — two paths after your first coat

Reapplying within 15–20 min?

No sanding needed between coats — they melt into one another. Apply additional thin coats with about 15 minutes between each.

Waiting longer than 24 hours?

Lightly sand the area again before applying more lacquer. Skipping this step will prevent the new coat from bonding properly.

Curing time. The touch-up will feel dry quickly, but takes about one week to fully cure and harden into the coats beneath it. Treat the area gently during that time.

Touching up drawer edges — advanced

On flush-frame designs, each drawer is sanded during the build to accommodate the added thickness of the lacquer. Our gauge is a stack of three playing cards taped together — during prep, we sand until that stack slides smoothly between the drawer and the face frame.

If you're touching up the top edge of a drawer, use a very light hand. Extra product buildup on a drawer edge can affect how smoothly it operates. Less is always the right call here.

Photo

Three playing cards taped together as a gauge next to a drawer.

Curated for your finish

Everything we actually use and recommend.

Over the years we've tested a lot of products on our finishes. The ones below are the ones we stand behind — for daily care, surface protection, and ordering more of what arrived in your kit.

Most Requested

Finish Spray

The same product we send with every piece. Water-based, won't react with lacquer.

Shop on Amazon →

Microfiber Cloths

Ultra-soft, lint-free. Safe for lacquer surfaces without micro-scratching.

Shop on Amazon →

Protective Dot Protectors

The only protectors we trust won't bond to or react with the lacquer finish over time.

Shop on Amazon →

See all Care & Maintenance Recommended Products

Shop Our Amazon Collection →

Tempered Glass Tops & Shelves

A custom glass top is one of the best investments you can make for your piece. We recommend OneDayGlass.com for custom-cut tempered glass tops and shelves.

Glass Specs

✦  1/4" tempered glass for tops

✦  2/8" tempered glass for shelves

✦  Pencil-polished edges

✦  Do not order their dots — use ours instead.

Shop OneDayGlass.com →
Tempered glass top on lacquer furniture

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