Bamboo: how to use it in furnishing a space

How to use bamboo in interior design? Bamboo (or bamboo) is a material that has been enjoying great success in the interior design sector in recent years. Today bamboo reeds are used in many ways in interior design.

In this article we will give you some important suggestions and ideas to use this material to enhance your spaces and give them a touch of elegance and personality.

How to use bamboo in the furnishing of your spaces

All those who intend to use bamboo to furnish their spaces should know that it is an extremely versatile material: bamboo is in fact used to make a wide range of furniture, carpets and clothes. Another positive aspect of bamboo is that its production is almost always synonymous with great environmental sustainability. Finally, bamboo is an extremely durable material.

The main uses of bamboo

A wide range of products and products can be made with bamboo. Below are the main uses of this material:

• Bamboo is used in some parts of the world for the production of real houses: according to some statistics there are over one million people living in bamboo houses today.
• This material is also used for the production of roofing and parquet floors: the reasons for its use are its natural shine, as well as its natural flexibility and stability.
• Bamboo is also a material frequently used for the production of carpets, because of its great resistance to water: for this reason kitchen carpets in particular are made with the help of this material.
• Bamboo furniture is becoming more and more common: the material is in fact used for the production of laminates to be used in the most varied sectors of interior furnishing. In particular, a wide range of bamboo furniture is now produced, as well as other elements such as chairs, tables, beds, bedside tables, wallpaper, mirror surfaces and much more.

Why choose bamboo elements for your home?

Why has bamboo become such a popular material in the furnishing sector in recent years? The answer is first of all to be found in the great versatility of this material. However, there are even more significant characteristics that make bamboo a particularly innovative material.

Seismic properties of bamboo

Bamboo is a material with important anti-seismic properties: the ability to resist earthquakes derives from the great lightness and flexibility of this material. Houses made exclusively with the help of bamboo can be defined to all intents and purposes as earthquake-proof. In some parts of the world bamboo is used to make the load-bearing structures of houses.

Eco-sustainability of bamboo

Bamboo plants grow spontaneously without the need for intensive cultivation. This aspect represents the non plus ultra for the pursuit of the objective of environmental sustainability. The life cycle of the bamboo plant is also very rapid: just think that the mass of a bamboo plant grows 10.30% of the total every year.

Finally, the bamboo plant is capable of capturing carbon dioxide in large quantities.

Resistance of bamboo to external agents

Bamboo is a natural 100 by 100 material capable of surprisingly responding to shocks. This material is also able to respond in an equally astonishing way to the action of external agents and in particular to great atmospheric changes, which do not cause any kind of damage to this material.

The action of humidity is therefore particularly difficult with bamboo. Thanks to its important water-repellent properties, bamboo is a material that can also be used in the bathroom or kitchen environment.

Bamboo plants grow and thrive without any problems in particularly humid environments with large temperature fluctuations. The changes in volume of bamboo caused by temperature changes are much less significant than those affecting other materials such as wood.

Ability to preserve bamboo for a long time

The resistance and the ability to preserve itself for a long time represent two other important peculiarities of bamboo, for which this material can boast such a great commercial success in the design sector.

Among the furniture and accessories most commonly made with bamboo reeds are the cutting boards: these bamboo elements are particularly appreciated because of the great capacity of the material to absorb the cuts and scratches caused by the use of the knife. Because of this important characteristic bamboo is in some ways considered a more durable and more reliable material than traditional solid wood. A very interesting and significant technical fact is the tensile strength of bamboo, which is also superior to that of steel.

Use of bamboo in interior design

Thanks to its important properties and characteristics, bamboo can be used for the realization of furniture and accessories that can be placed in every part of the house: from the bedroom to the bathroom, up to the floor.

From an aesthetic point of view this material certainly lends itself to the creation of furniture inspired by ethnic style or that somehow refers to the theme of nature.

Precisely thanks to the recall of natural elements, bamboo can be able to mould itself and adapt to a more contemporary style concept.

Some disadvantages of bamboo

However, even an almost perfect material like bamboo has some disadvantages. No natural or artificial material can be said to be totally perfect. Despite the above mentioned advantages in terms of environmental sustainability, there are other factors to be considered with due care.

Just as is the case with wood, bamboo can also be used to produce furniture elements using glued laminates: these products are made with the help of volatile chemical compounds including formaldehyde. Volatile chemical compounds can be very harmful to health. Obviously it is also necessary to consider the environmental impact related to the transport phases. Much of the bamboo that composes furniture and accessories is in fact produced and processed in the Asian continent and must therefore travel great distances to reach our homes. For this reason, look for bamboo made in Italy.

Another negative aspect that concerns bamboo is the fact that in the production and processing of this material there is no univocal regulation that determines the quality production standards.

The last disadvantage of this material is the possibility of being attacked by insects: in order to avoid this unpleasant condition it is necessary to treat bamboo with special compounds (for example boron salt) that make it unassailable.