Use a flipping coaster!

[Methenyouplus4]

Maybe it's because it's what my parents did, but if I put a cup/glass down on wood I use a coaster. If I'm at someone's house and I can't see any, I would ask for one (and only put it down if they say it's fine/what they usually do).

I have solid wood fireplace/ table/ window ledges etc and despite having coasters on all of them, I find a few people just ignore them and stick glasses/cups on the wood. This really annoys me as you end up with hard/impossible to remove watermarks. That said, I want guests to feel comfortable and not awkward so don't want to seem rude picking their cup up and moving it onto a coaster. I try to do it subtly but am I being unreasonable to think if there are coasters there you should use them?

Agree with you OP. I had a friend come round once and she kept resting her cup of tea on the arm of my fabric sofa. And its a bloody Laura Ashley. Was fuming. I did say put it on the table and she kept saying oh its alright ive nearly finished it. Like that makes any difference.

Coasters are naff?

I actually don't really have any furniture I'm precious about (we're mid toddler phase) but I have some coasters I like so we use them .

I don't like coasters but will use one if one is provided. What does wind me up is my MIL (in many ways :o ) who has her table covered with foam backed leather to protect it and uses coasters on that. Which I think is insane. I'm told the table is lovely but I've never once seen it in a decade because of the cover, and if you are going to cover it with something ugly why then still obsess about the coasters?

Leaving class aside, why would you buy tables, windowsills etc that take marks from cups and glasses, if, as is clear from the OP, that it really bothers you to the extent that every time you give a visitor a cup of tea or glass of water you want to hover and move their drinks onto coasters? It must make having people over unrelaxing.

It sounds as if the OP either needs new furniture or new friends and family.

Quite a bit of my furniture has been passed onto me / is second hand... would be madness to buy more when I could buy coasters and keep it nice that way.

it really bothers you to the extent that every time you give a visitor a cup of tea or glass of water you want to hover and move their drinks onto coasters

Presumably people with nice furniture have guests who usually don't have to be told not to damage the hosts furniture. So usually no hovering required.

Why not just give them a coaster at the same time you give them a drink and say something like, "I hope you don't think I'm being overly precious but would you mind using a coaster as I'm trying to protect the furniture from watermarks." Said with a disarming smile, only a complete twat would deliberately ignore it or take offence.

PS I don't use coasters.

If you have people round, put coasters out. Then if you see a thing off the coaster, put it on the coaster. I dont own a hostess trolley BTW.

I don't like coasters but we do have them and use them.

Our furniture is all solid wood and antique and I don't want it to be marked.

People find coasters naff and precious and they're a class indicator???

Every day's a school day.

I cleaned my coasters yesterday so I wouldn't be ashamed when people saw drink rings on them, and we wouldn't get stains on the pine coffee table. Turns out I should be ashamed of their very existence. Who knew?

We have coasters. And place mats at the dining table. Are place mats ok?

The only thing that annoys me about coasters is when they stick to the bottom of my icy alcoholic drink and plop off into my lap making me jump and spill some.

I have place mats too, though again, we really use them from habit than any sense of protecting our shitty furniture! They were a gift.

We have a really nice oak dining table. You wouldn't know though because it's covered in a table protector, a tablecloth, a runner and placemats.

I hate coasters.

I prefer survivable furniture.

What furniture can survive a mug of boiling hot drink?

I'm middle class. I like being middle class. I have reasonably nice furniture. I like to keep my furniture in good condition. I use coasters. It's not being uptight or precious, it's just wanting to keep my home looking how I want it to look. I'd rather do this, and be thought naff, than allow my stuff to be damaged because I was worried others would look down on me.

Actually I do have some coasters.

An aunt got them from me from New Zeland for looking after her cat. They are slices of mineral......like a quartzy thing.

DS plays with them, he thinks they are pretend biscuits.

YANBU
We have recently had a new kitchen and new dining table after a lifetime putting up with horrid tatty old stuff so I'm making no apologies for being precious. I've trained my DH and DCs in coasters and place mats I just wish my MIL would also comply. It is rude not to respect other people's homes.

Loved reading all of these comments- coasters, a class marker- who knew! Not me, clearly. I'm defo from a 100% working class background and so I imagine parents always used them as they had (and still have the same) wooden furniture that they loved and assumed would last a lifetime.

Now I think by most people's standards we would certainly be viewed as middle class (if you base that on education / wealth/ area we live etc rather than simply the status you were born into). I do have some furniture I couldn't give a hoot about (Ikea stuff) that I would put a mug on without a second thought but that is in the spare room/ nursery. The things I'm bothered about are items such as a solid wood nest of tables I lovingly stripped back (then painted the bottom half in lovely chalk paint), pine farmhouse table on lovely castors etc. It's not so much about cost and being precious as nest of tables were free (rescued from a tip) and table was £100 from an auction, more that (a bit like my parents I guess), that I love these pieces and want to own them and keep them looking decent for a long time.

I have 4 kids so I'm certainly not precious about other things, as sofas are often doused in vomit/snot/poop etc. I just assumed people would use them if they were there (which they are- a combination of slate ones and tiles from Whittled and Clesea if that is of any interest). I guess it's a bit (in my mind) like taking off your shoes as you enter someone's home- I always do so unless they insist otherwise (but maybe that's a different thread)!

I must be doubly naff...I have special Xmas coasters

I think it rather depends on the furniture. I'm non-U clearly, as like Michael Heseltine, I bought my own furniture .

Nonetheless we do well enough and buy nice stuff when we can rather than buy cheap and replace often. You want to stick your glass on my solid dining table? Fairy nuff. You go near the only bloody TV unit we could get that fitted the space & our content requirements (v. expensive German brand, but veneer) and I will very quickly throw that coaster Fact is, most furniture - even the more expensive stuff - today is not as robust as an inherited lump of furniture that had to be made solidly due to the materials available at the time (and is probably a 4 person carry).

I certainly wouldn't allow my stuff to be damaged just so I could appear more posh / less naff.

OP YANBU. I always ask before putting down something hot or that might cause condensation on a surface, unless it's obvious from what the hosts are doing.