Wooden furniture turning green

[Littlefrog99]

Please help me oh wise ladies of MN.

Why is our wooden bedroom furniture turning green with what I assume is some kind of mould? Its powdery in texture and wipes off easily but comes back within a few days. It only affects our wooden furniture upstairs, front, back and inside the wardrobes too. It's in 2 different rooms, there's no damp in the property, no leaks anywhere and the house has a recent damp proof course and loft/cavity wall insulation. All rooms are used and ventilated/heated. We don't ever dry clothes on radiators either. No other type of furniture is affected.

How can I fix it? We can't afford to replace it.

There's no point just wiping off mould as you will just spread the spores afresh.

It's rare for mould to grow without damp. Clean down the wood with a fungicidal mould spray, throw all the cloths away, and put a dehumidifier in that room.

If it comes back then something else is going on.

Thank you jojo. I did wonder if I'd made it worse by wiping it seeing as it came back so quickly, and worse than it was. I also wondered if having the house so well insulated could be adding to it. I'll try a fungicidal spray as you suggest and hope that works.

Is there anything else I could do to prevent it happening again if I do resolve it for now? I'm pushing 40 and have lived in lots of places over the years, some of them were awful, damp rental properties and I've never experienced this before.

Dehumidifier. Well insulated houses don't 'breathe' and you'll be pumping out moisture overnight as you sleep

I've had good success with using a beeswax with lavender oil, the wax seals the wood and the lavender kills the spores.

(I live in an old damp house)

It does sound like a condensation issue, you can help by not placing large pieces of furniture against external walls, and leaving air gaps, open windows daily for as long as possible and don't skimp on heating.

Looks like I've got some hard work to do! Thank you for your advice.