How to buy it once

Most things are sold on what they look like on day one. Here's what ours look like on day four hundred, and what to do about it.

Full-grain vegetable-tanned leather

Two separate claims, both load-bearing.

Full-grain means the outer layer of the hide, with its scars and pores intact, rather than a surface sanded flat and stamped with an artificial grain. Sanded leather looks perfect in a photograph and then peels, because the pretty part is a coating.

Vegetable-tanned means tanned with tannins drawn from tree bark, over weeks, instead of with chromium salts, over a day. It's slower and more expensive, and it produces leather that darkens with sunlight and handling instead of breaking down.

So ours patinas. It doesn't peel. It will go darker at the corners and along the edges where your hands go. That isn't wear. That's the reason to buy it.

Care: almost nothing. Keep it out of the washing machine and away from radiators. If it dries out after a few years, a little conditioner. Don't treat a scratch — it'll blend in on its own.

Unstained oiled hardwood

Because there's no stain and no lacquer, there's no finish to chip. The oil is in the wood rather than on it.

Care: hand wash, and dry it standing up rather than flat so it doesn't cup. Re-oil when it starts to look dry and pale — food-grade mineral oil, a cloth, ten minutes, twice a year. A scratch sands out with fine paper and vanishes under the next oiling. A lacquered board can't do this; once it chips, it's finished.

Travertine

A limestone laid down in mineral springs, which is where those open pores across the surface come from. It's stone, so it's tough. It's porous, so it takes a stain.

Care: seal it once a year with any stone sealer. Wipe up red wine and oil reasonably promptly. Beyond that, use it — travertine has been a building material for two thousand years, and yours is holding your keys.

Glazed ceramic and handblown glass

The glaze is glass, so it's non-porous and asks for nothing. Our carafes are blown from recycled glass and then hammered by hand, which is why no two catch the light the same way. The variation is the process, not a defect.

Care: wash them. That's it. Keep handblown glass out of the dishwasher — not because it will break, but because the machine will dull the surface over a few years.

The argument

None of this is difficult, and that's rather the point. Things made properly from a single honest material need almost no maintenance and improve as they age. Things made from three materials glued together need none either — right up until the moment they're rubbish.

Buy fewer. Buy once. Then actually use them.