Canvas & Print Care Guide

Australian coastal homes are beautiful places to live and tough environments for wall art. Salt air, strong UV, summer humidity and the occasional beach-towel-flung-too-hard all conspire against a canvas print. With a little care, the same print will look as good on its tenth anniversary as it did the day it arrived. Here’s how.

Sunlight — the biggest issue

Direct Australian sun fades pigment over time, even with archival inks. The worst spots are walls that catch hours of direct afternoon sun in summer: west-facing living rooms, north-facing hallways, anywhere a window throws an unbroken rectangle of sunshine across the wall for more than two hours a day. If that’s the only good spot for the print, two solutions help: fit window film with UV filtration (Solar Gard and 3M sell residential rolls), or rotate the print with another piece every six months so neither face gets full-time exposure. For framed prints, an acrylic glaze with UV filtration adds a second layer of protection.

Salt air and humidity

If your home is within a few hundred metres of the ocean, the air inside it is permanently a little salty and a little damp. Three things help. First, give the canvas a small air gap behind it — a cork bumper at each lower corner, about 3mm thick, keeps the print from pressing flat against the wall and lets air circulate. Second, run a dehumidifier or aircon for an hour or two in periods of unusually humid weather (cyclone build-up, Sydney summers). Third, avoid hanging canvas prints directly above unsealed timber surfaces that release moisture overnight.

Dusting

Once a fortnight, give the print a gentle dust with a clean dry microfibre cloth — the kind you’d use on a TV screen, not the rougher car-detailing weave. Wipe in one direction across the canvas surface rather than rubbing in circles. For framed prints behind acrylic, the same microfibre works; never use a paper towel as the fibres can scratch acrylic over time. If you spot a stubborn mark on a canvas, slightly dampen the microfibre with distilled water (not tap, not cleaning spray) and dab gently — never scrub.

What not to do

• No cleaning chemicals. Glass cleaner, multi-surface spray, eucalyptus oil and lemon-scented anything will all damage the print surface or the canvas weave. Distilled water on a microfibre is the only liquid that should ever touch a Salt and Sol print.
• No direct sunlight, ever. Even an hour a day adds up over years. If you can’t avoid it, see the sunlight section above.
• No bathrooms or wet areas. Steam over years will lift the canvas off the timber bars. Bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens with good ventilation, hallways — all fine.
• No leaning prints against the wall on the floor. The bottom edge picks up dust and damp from the skirting, and toddlers and pets find them quickly.

Re-tensioning a canvas that has slackened

After three or four years, especially in humid coastal homes, a canvas can develop a tiny ripple or feel softer to the touch. This is the timber bar adjusting to the room — not a fault. The fix is simple. Lift the canvas down, lay it face down on a clean towel, and look at the four corners on the back: each one has a small triangular wedge tapped into a slot. Use a small hammer to tap each wedge about 2mm deeper into its slot — even taps on all four corners. The canvas surface will tighten visibly. Hang it back up. The whole job takes ten minutes and can be repeated every couple of years as needed.

Pets and kids

Cats with claws and toddlers with crayons are the two main accidental-damage risks. For homes with cats, hang prints at least 30cm above the highest point your cat can reach standing on furniture (assume they can reach almost anywhere). For homes with small kids, hang the bottom edge above the standard reaching height of around 110cm. If a small puncture or tear does happen on a canvas, take a phone photo and email it to info@saltandsol.com.au — minor punctures can sometimes be patched from behind, and larger tears can be re-printed at a discount.

Storage — if you need to move or pack a print away

Wrap the print first in acid-free tissue paper, then in bubble wrap with the bubbles facing out (so they don’t imprint on the canvas surface), then in a flat cardboard sleeve. Store it flat or standing upright — never lying face down on its corners. Keep it out of garages and sheds, which swing too much in temperature and humidity. A wardrobe inside the house is a much better storage spot than a garage shelf.

Long-term — the 10-year view

A Salt and Sol canvas hung sensibly away from direct sun, dusted every couple of weeks, and re-tensioned once or twice over its life should look essentially the same at ten years old as it did at one year. The pigments are rated archival for around 100 years on canvas in standard indoor conditions. Most of what shortens the life of a coastal print is environmental — sun and humidity — not the print itself. Get those two right and the artwork stays right.

Need a replacement or repair?

Email the team at info@saltandsol.com.au with a photo and a description, or call 1300 632 332. Repairs and re-prints are handled out of the Noosaville studio (Unit 2 Industrial Lane, 170 Eumundi-Noosa Road, Noosaville QLD 4566) for east-coast addresses and the Booragoon studio (30/70 Norma Road, Booragoon WA 6154) for WA addresses.