Elements of Style: Much Ado About Bamboo
See 5 ways to bring this appealing plant into your home
Jess McBride
September 2, 2016
Houzz Contributor. Custom decorating professional and content creator for the home design industry with a lifelong passion for color, pattern, and texture of every "stripe"
Houzz Contributor. Custom decorating professional and content creator for the home... More
Bamboo sits at the intersection of two styles: eco-friendly design and tropical British Colonial style, which has seen a resurgence of late. For the past several years, bamboo floors and even countertops have been turning up in high-end homes as designers and clients gravitate to bamboo’s relative sustainability, its visual and literal lightness, and the strong materiality it lends to minimalist design. Those who are hot on the trail of today’s trendsetting tropical leaf patterns and breezy coastal style are leading the charge toward incorporating bamboo motifs in many ways throughout the home. Here are our five favorite applications of this re-emerging classic.
1. Wall Treatments
Geometric bamboo wallpaper has long been available through luxury retailers, but don’t be surprised now if you start seeing it everywhere you turn. Not only do bamboo’s recognizable notches spice up tired geometric patterns, but they also communicate a variety of styles: Hollywood glam, Palm Beach chic, worldly bohemian.
Geometric bamboo wallpaper has long been available through luxury retailers, but don’t be surprised now if you start seeing it everywhere you turn. Not only do bamboo’s recognizable notches spice up tired geometric patterns, but they also communicate a variety of styles: Hollywood glam, Palm Beach chic, worldly bohemian.
Though not quite as ubiquitous as bamboo wallpapers, tiles do exist that will give your bathroom or backsplash surfaces an earthy tropical edge. A rounded bullnose by Filmore Clark resembles bamboo and ties in perfectly with the bas-relief accent tiles.
A mélange of textural brown and amber tones are punctuated with glass tiles that have been coated with a silver metallic compound during the cooling process. Together, the effect is of an abstract and modern bamboo thicket that proves bamboo motifs can be as effective in dark, intimate spaces as in white, airy beach bungalows.
2. Privacy Screens
What looks exotic to many is vernacular in this Hawaiian bathroom. I love the idea of keeping the interiors of tropical homes referential to the scenic natural beauty of the site, and this bamboo screen does just that. It is appropriate to the region and drives the bathroom’s indigenous feel for relatively little investment. In other rooms of the house, a common tri-fold room divider could achieve the same look with less permanence and the flexibility to create smaller nooks as the mood strikes.
What looks exotic to many is vernacular in this Hawaiian bathroom. I love the idea of keeping the interiors of tropical homes referential to the scenic natural beauty of the site, and this bamboo screen does just that. It is appropriate to the region and drives the bathroom’s indigenous feel for relatively little investment. In other rooms of the house, a common tri-fold room divider could achieve the same look with less permanence and the flexibility to create smaller nooks as the mood strikes.
Custom shoji screens grace these kitchen windows as an artful alternative to traditional draperies or fabric shades. While not the budget choice, custom shoji screens can be made to incorporate all manner of flora, including bamboo leaves, into the acrylic material. These particular screens were custom-made by a cabinetmaker for a client of Gaspar Construction.
3. Furniture
At the height of British Colonialism, when expeditions to far-flung lands were expanding the empire’s reach, aristocratic settlers had to outfit their new homes an ocean away from their trusty furniture craftsmen and retailers. Folding tables were more of a necessity than a conscious design decision since they were easier to transport than the bulky furniture left on the mainland. To this day, folding tables (or fixed ones inspired by folding designs) remain a hallmark of British Colonial decorating. Bamboo legs embrace the look’s tropical context.
At the height of British Colonialism, when expeditions to far-flung lands were expanding the empire’s reach, aristocratic settlers had to outfit their new homes an ocean away from their trusty furniture craftsmen and retailers. Folding tables were more of a necessity than a conscious design decision since they were easier to transport than the bulky furniture left on the mainland. To this day, folding tables (or fixed ones inspired by folding designs) remain a hallmark of British Colonial decorating. Bamboo legs embrace the look’s tropical context.
Wherever you find vertical posts, you uncover an opportunity to transform a straight cylinder into a bamboo look-alike. Bamboo’s greatest design virtue is its roughly evenly spaced joints, which add texture and dimension, and help break up a long stretch of material. Evoking the bamboo plant’s architecture by rimming the bedposts with their signature detail glamorizes this room’s minimally patterned scheme.
Bamboo furniture and its imitators boast an easy flexibility that makes them popular in bohemian decorating. The pieces are casual, lightweight and portable, and studio apartment dwellers appreciate how a chair and side table combo like this can be swiftly pulled into another zone to serve as makeshift guest seating or a reading chair.
Chinese Chippendale chairs are one of the most recognizable artifacts of legendary furniture designer Thomas Chippendale’s legacy. Modern retailers have adapted the designer’s signature interlocking geometric chair backs in a multitude of ways, but one of the most popular suggests bamboo shoots in its styling.
4. Railings and Fences
If you’re lucky enough to live in a tropical locale, consider using real bamboo as your deck railing. It’s not even necessary to use perfectly straight pieces. Instead, embrace the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in the perfectly imperfect, and gather a bundle of bent shoots to construct your own.
If you’re lucky enough to live in a tropical locale, consider using real bamboo as your deck railing. It’s not even necessary to use perfectly straight pieces. Instead, embrace the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in the perfectly imperfect, and gather a bundle of bent shoots to construct your own.
Designer Cheryl von Tress installed this focal gate to keep her clients in the garden and the deer out. The kinetic tube sculpture at top spooks interloping deer when the wind blows, while the gorgeous laser-cut bamboo motif invites the humans to explore the natural world. It’s amazing how much a single well-designed feature can accomplish on a small footprint abundant with negative space.
A stubby bamboo fence defines the borders of this Hawaiian yard.
A single bamboo stair rail underlines a gallery wall in London, perhaps the last place you’d expect to see such a tropical staple. And that’s just the beauty of it: This single, subtle gesture whispers that creative souls live here instead of shouting any overt theme. The rail is artful without taking away from the art.
For an Indonesian project, designer Iwan Sastrawiguna honored local materials by specifying an Indonesian-made table and tall stair balusters made of extra-thick bamboo.
5. Decorative Flourishes
Can’t find a place for any of these stellar bamboo applications in your own home? I bet you can find a place for a live plant. It is by now well-documented that plants improve air quality, and may even improve concentration and feelings of well-being. Tall species like bamboo are especially well-poised to impart these benefits since their looming presence connects us more tangibly to the natural world from whence we came.
Can’t find a place for any of these stellar bamboo applications in your own home? I bet you can find a place for a live plant. It is by now well-documented that plants improve air quality, and may even improve concentration and feelings of well-being. Tall species like bamboo are especially well-poised to impart these benefits since their looming presence connects us more tangibly to the natural world from whence we came.
When all else fails, large bamboo shoots in a beautiful clay pot will dress up any vacant corner.
More Elements of Style: Pineapples | Flamingos | Surfboards | Birds
More Elements of Style: Pineapples | Flamingos | Surfboards | Birds
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A bamboo chandelier adds an exotic touch.
There are great ways to incorporate bamboo elements in furniture and decor. There are not too many bamboo sofa out there, but I'm sure the ones that do exist are extremely expensive. If you plan on decorating with bamboo, this indicates that natural elements like wood should stand out as much as possible. A futon sofa is a great and inexpensive option to have as much of an exposed wood sofa frame. You can also get futon frames in various finishes to match the bamboo color. Quality rated futons and futon mattresses can be just as attractive if not more comfortable than a $3,000 sofa. The great thing about a futon is that you can always update the look to match the decor of the room easily and inexpensively with a removable futon cover for the mattress. Also I should mention that there are several models of natural fiber and bamboo decorative room divider screens to add to that bamboo element in your decor.
Wave Bamboo Room Divider Partition Screen
UrbanFutonbeds.com Futons and convertible sofa beds
Find many different models of accent furniture and room dividers made from bamboo or have a bamboo theme.
UrbanAccentsNY.com
This early sentence grabbed me, "For the past several years, bamboo floors and even countertops have been turning up in high-end homes as designers and clients gravitate to bamboo’s relative sustainability," however there was no paragraph on bamboo flooring. I have a luxury home listing with bamboo floors, but high-end buyers have not embraced the owner's choice. They seem hesitant and nervous about adopting this eco-friendly product over a hardwood so I am in search of stories, pictures and support of this trend as a flooring alternative. My clients have it in every room except bedrooms and bathrooms.