Homewares care: find the right guide for your piece

Start with the piece, not the shop

Homewares are made from many materials, often combined in one piece. A cushion can have a linen cover, a feather insert and a decorative trim; a tray can be timber with a lacquered finish. A product name, a collection title or the shop it came from tells you where to start looking, but it is not a care label.

Use the table below to match what you own to a material-specific guide. Before cleaning, find the label, maker's mark or receipt, and photograph the underside or back if you can do so safely. When a piece is valuable, fragile or unidentified, a specialist assessment is safer than an experiment.

Find the guide for your piece

Names identify a range, not a complete care specification. Similar-looking pieces can have different fibres, dyes, glazes, backing or inserts. Avoid applying one cleaning method across a mixed collection.

Ceramics: check the maker before choosing a method

A maker's name can turn a general cleaning guess into a useful care instruction. For example, Mud Australia's dinnerware care guide says its porcelain dinnerware is dishwasher safe and advises spacing pieces so they do not knock together. That guidance applies to the specified range; it does not establish that an unidentified vase, repaired bowl or decorated vintage plate is dishwasher safe.

Keep a photograph of the maker's mark with the instructions you find. If the mark is unreadable, describe the uncertainty when asking the maker or a specialist for help. Do not use a cleaning method from a visually similar object as proof that it suits yours.

Furniture needs its own identification

Furniture sold alongside homewares often combines materials. Do not assume a table or chest is inlaid, solid timber or sealed because of how it looks or where it came from. Check its construction and finish, keep its care label, and ask the maker about uncertain surfaces. For an identified inlay piece, use bone inlay furniture care; for timber, timber furniture care.

Before asking for advice, take clear photographs of the whole piece, any labels or stamps, the underside or back if safely accessible, and the area causing concern. Record what you know separately from what you suspect: “label says linen cover” is useful evidence; “looks like silk” remains uncertain. Do not repeatedly test products while waiting for advice, and do not tip heavy furniture alone just to inspect a label.

Make a care record that stays with the item

1. Photograph the front, reverse and every label before cleaning.
2. Write down the material, construction, colour and any separate insert or backing.
3. Record the label's cleaning restrictions, including restrictions on trims.
4. Note existing fading, loose threads, chips or stains so they are not mistaken for new damage.
5. Keep the record with purchase information and show it to a specialist when needed.

If someone else cleans your home, agree which pieces can be dusted or moved and which should be left alone. A short list of objects that should not be moved or treated during a routine clean saves guesswork for everyone.

Keep useful pieces easy to live with

Choose a job for each piece. A basket can hold one category of things, a blanket can have a dry storage shelf, and a planter can sit where its base is easy to inspect. Avoid filling decorative containers until they are difficult to lift.

Give decorative objects a stable home with enough space to lift them without knocking their neighbours, and keep the surface beneath a display accessible. If cleaning means moving a long chain of fragile pieces, reduce the group. In a room with a bold rug or cushion, let one patterned piece lead and repeat one of its colours in something smaller you already own.

Our home styling and care guide helps plan the room, and the easy-care furnishing checklist helps compare materials before you buy. For help with the regular cleaning around them, see what a standard clean includes. Specialist repair, conservation, upholstery and rug restoration need their own assessment; they are not part of a general house-cleaning booking.

Before you buy or replace a piece

Write down what you need the item to do. Measure its location, decide who will move it for cleaning and check whether its material suits the room. A water-holding vase, a decorative vessel and an outer plant pot may look alike while having different uses. Compare maintenance as well as appearance: removable covers with clear instructions, reachable shelves and stable objects are easier to live with.

Old prices, stock notices and gift-guide dates are historical. When researching a discontinued piece, use the artist or maker named on your item or in the original feature, and check that any current seller is authentic. A similar photograph does not establish the same material or construction.

Arriving from an older shop link?

Simply Maid acquired the domains of several former homewares shops and sends their old links to the relevant guides on this site. We do not operate those businesses, sell their products, or handle their orders, vouchers, warranties or returns. The publishers that linked to them were describing those shops, not endorsing Simply Maid. For a past purchase, start with your receipt and the seller or maker named on it. Historical addresses and telephone numbers should not be treated as current contacts.

Kova Lifestyle

A Brisbane homewares and lifestyle shop that appeared in design and shopping guides, including The Design Files' 2012 Brisbane mini city guide and The Interiors Addict's feature on its One in Six label. Time Out's entry marks it closed. Older references usually concern linen cushions, quilts, ceramics or decorated furniture; use the cushion, ceramics and inlay rows above.

Ruby Star Traders

A source of decorative furnishings in older home tours and gift guides, such as Now To Love's Justine Cullen tastemaker feature and AR Interiors' Christmas shopping guide. Its catalogue included inlay furniture, soft furnishings and vintage upholstered pieces; use the inlaid furniture, cushion and vintage upholstery rows above. An older chair may have been reupholstered more than once, so check its current fabric rather than the original listing.

Langdon

An Australian homewares label whose catalogue included colourful woven rugs, decorative cushions and doormats, described in archived pages as Australian-designed with artisan weaving in India. The archived Rainbow Doormat page, March 2021 names jute and gold lurex, and the Floss Fringe Rug page, February 2020 identifies cotton and fringed construction. Those details apply to the named items only. Use the rug, doormat and cushion rows above.

Paterson + Steele

An online boutique for artisan homewares, described on its 2016 homepage. Recovered product pages identify reversible cotton-canvas buckets, a handwoven wool pom-pom blanket and Revolution Design House ash timber planters. Collections also carried pieces from designers such as Ahoy Trader, Ames Collective, Keep Resin, Lumiere Art & Co, Pony Rider, Rice and These Creatures.

A brand or collection name is not a cleaning instruction. Identify the object itself, then use the planter, canvas, blanket, wall-art, leather, tableware or decorative rows above.

The REAL Store

The r.e.a.l Store was a Sydney retailer associated with design, social enterprise and homewares. Its range included Wasara fibre tableware, Katherine Mahoney ceramics, Water Tiger furniture, Renbell woven cushions and Prison Blues clothing; for the denim, see denim care and repair.

Its S.E.A.T. project, a children's bamboo stool connected with an Indigenous literacy fundraiser, is described in a 2010 IndesignLive feature. Simply Maid has no connection with that initiative and does not collect donations or sell the stool. For an existing stool, follow its maker's instructions; painted finishes and joints need more than a generic bamboo-cleaning recipe.

Market Import

A homewares importer whose May 2012 About page described artisan goods from Mexico, Italy and Spain and listed stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. Its 2013 catalogue covered glassware, tabletop pieces, baskets, mirrors, textiles and some furniture; the matching rows above cover each of those.

The archived website still showed homewares navigation in December 2023, and a March 2024 visit ended at a store-unavailable page. That records the website's condition on that visit, not a closure date or the status of any former business. This guide cannot confirm stock, redeem former vouchers or continue a gift registry.

About this guide

Original Simply Maid guidance prepared with AI assistance. It combines seven former-shop reference pages first published on 15 October 2026 into one guide organised by object. Sources checked on 15 October 2026. No independent practitioner review or product testing is claimed.