Wood smell on cupboard

I was gifted a large amount of knitting yarn and it has a smell to it……musty but no sign of dirt. I packed it all up in a plastic crate with kitchen roll parcels of bicarbonate of soda sprinkled with lavender oil layered between the balls of yarn, and sealed the lid down. After a couple of months the smell was gone and I can now start using the yarn which I store in the crate with the bicarbonate of soda parcels.

It’s solid pine by the look of it, we have two similar ones and I loved the scent, but it faded after a while naturally.
Leaving the doors open will help.

Reported

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Is it actually solid wood or wood laminate? Wood laminate can have a plastiky smell but shoukd be easy to clear as will not absorb much moisture from luquids applied. There may be parts of the wardrobe made from wood eg edging, even if basically mdf/laminated wood. Also the chest of drawers you bought may look the same but if solid wood tgey may have been made with wood treated differently hence no smell. You should check with where ever you bought them from exactly what the wardrobe is made from.

charley68

Doodlebug Definitely a puzzle. The only thing I can add is to remove all the drawers and leave them outside in the sunshine if possible. Perhaps bring the cupboard outside too? Try leaving them out in the sun for a couple of days, or longer? Put them inside overnight, but outside again during the day.

win I would suggest trying this too with the drawers of your older furniture, and also with your newer bedside cabinets.

Then I would try rubbing chalk powder into all inside area of the wood, not just the joints and angles, but on all inside surfaces. Perhaps do that a few times over the next few months?

Thank you definitely worth a try, if I have a day at home with some sunshine. Thank you.

We had some new bedroom furniture recently from The Cotswold Company. There was a strong smell from the chest of drawers and the bedside chest. I left the drawers open and the smell went away eventually.

Doodlebug Definitely a puzzle. The only thing I can add is to remove all the drawers and leave them outside in the sunshine if possible. Perhaps bring the cupboard outside too? Try leaving them out in the sun for a couple of days, or longer? Put them inside overnight, but outside again during the day.

win I would suggest trying this too with the drawers of your older furniture, and also with your newer bedside cabinets.

Then I would try rubbing chalk powder into all inside area of the wood, not just the joints and angles, but on all inside surfaces. Perhaps do that a few times over the next few months?

I bought some lovely reproduction furniture some many years back and to this day the drawers still smell of wood and oil. I have tried everything to no avail, I only keep paperwork in there now as any clothes picks up the smell really strongly. So annoying.

I also purchased two small bed side cabinets recently, they also smell of wood and oil, but I do not keep clothes in the either so it does not matter too much. I can smell it on my hands when I have been in the drawers and in the room too. I just do not know what they use that never goes away. It is rather unpleasant though.

No, as I said upthread, it was new in December, and I have tried bicarb.

It's this one. About six months old.

I have soap in there now, and plan to mix essential oil with carrier oil and rub it liberally around the inside, then put a few drops of neat oil onto cotton wool balls and position them around the thing. I don't know why the matching bedside chest of drawers doesn't smell too, but it doesn't.

I am assuming this is an old piece of furniture and that you have tried scrubbing it well inside and out with soft soap and plenty of water, then washing it yet again only with clear water.

Then leaving it to dry with all drawers and cupboards open.

If the smell is still there, bicarbonate of soda on a saucer or any suitable sized unlidded container in every compartment for a week or so ought to help.

I had the same problem with a chest of drawers. I used pots of bicarbonate of soda in every drawer and shut it up for a month. Worked like a charm. In use now and no smell. Secret is to take it out of use for the month and don't open.

Bicarb of soda removes smells.

Try lots of balls of newspaper -removed musty smell from my wardrobe.

I wonder if it was made to hold linen? If so it might deliberately have been made from camphorwood or cedar. If this is the case it will not just disappear.
I think I'd paint it inside with chalk paint or similar. Some paint smells more though, so you'd have to be careful to choose a less smelly one. The only alternative to this would be to keep your linen in bags inside the cupboard.

Do you know what type of wood it is?
You could try asking a carpenter or woodworker and perhaps he/she might have an answer.
You could try spraying the inside with some oil based scented room spray, or get one of those gel type bathroom thingys and leave it in the bottom.
NB. I have a camphorwood chest - it is meant to smell of camphor to keep marauding moths/insects at bay, so it might be a good thing?

Bicarbonate of soda is a great smell absorber. Also if you decide to oil it then oil of Cedar would also act as an insect repellant.

Baggs

Furniture having a woody smell suggests to me that the wood wasn't seasoned for long enough. Hope you find a solution to the problem.

I got a bedside table with drawers at the same time (matching) and it doesn't smell at all, which is odd. It's not an unpleasant smell, but it's strong, and it does transfer, particularly to the towels.

I have a bar of Aromatherapy Associates soap in there now, and will mix essential oil with carrier oil and rub it round the inside later. I then plan to put some of the neat oil onto cotton wool balls and leave one in each drawer and a couple in the cupboard.

I had a smell in my cupboards I tried everything, from bicarb to charcoal etc. I bought these from Homebargains and hung them from the hinges. Now when I open the door I only smell these. Just 2 for 99p.

There’s a musty smell of old furniture that can indicate woodworm or rot. But this sounds like the natural smell of new wood. Can’t you learn to love it? It’s probably bottled and sold as ‘Scandinavian Pine’ at great cost!

Furniture having a woody smell suggests to me that the wood wasn't seasoned for long enough. Hope you find a solution to the problem.

I'm having the same problem with an old chest of drawers that I have been storing bedding in. Everything ends up with a very strange woody smell. My solution, which isn't really a solution but a temporary fix, is to give the bedding a quick spin in the tumble drier with a perfumed tumble drier sheet to try and get rid of the smell. I'm now going to try one of the more sensible and permanent solutions that have been suggested. I particularly like the idea of using essential oils so will try that first.

You could line the flat surfaces with tissue-paper cut to the exact size, and underneath that, a layer/layers of newspaper. These should help absorb the smell & then one can replace them when
wanted

Llamedos13

I popped a bar of a lovely scented soap into a smelly wood cupboard and it did the trick,

I do this with all wardrobes anyway, keeps moths at bay.
I like the scent of new pine wardrobes tho.

I'd only paint the inside, so it wouldn't show when closed. I've done it a couple of times for the same reason. Mine was old furniture.