Why Bamboo Should Be Indoors
Pandas can’t get enough of it and temple gardeners like it, too, but why should bamboo only be outdoors? Designers say bring it inside
Susan Redman
31 July 2015
Houzz Australia Editorial Staff; writer, author, dreamer.
Bamboo is a strong and cheaply sourced material most often associated with outdoor furniture and tropical huts, but it looks good indoors, too. It’s perfect for flooring, cabinetry, furniture, and as a elegant motif for decorative wallpapers and textiles. Potted bamboo plants can also be used as a living privacy screen to divide spaces indoors.
Bamboo grove
Traditionally, Buddhists like to surround their palaces and temples with bamboo, but why should this beautiful plant be relegated to the outdoors? Set the stage indoors with a little bamboo grove of your own by virtue of a oriental mural or wallpaper. If painted or hung in the entry, such as in this sophisticated apartment, you can enjoy plant life as soon as you walk inside.
Discover foliage motifs for furnishings
Traditionally, Buddhists like to surround their palaces and temples with bamboo, but why should this beautiful plant be relegated to the outdoors? Set the stage indoors with a little bamboo grove of your own by virtue of a oriental mural or wallpaper. If painted or hung in the entry, such as in this sophisticated apartment, you can enjoy plant life as soon as you walk inside.
Discover foliage motifs for furnishings
Tea party
Bohemians will love the look that’s been achieved with this old decorating trick: simply repaint an old outdoor bamboo setting that has weathered to grey. A bold bright semi-matt gloss hue applied to the aforementioned set you’ve saved from disposal will brightened any room it’s in. Dress it up with some pretty cushions and try it in a sunroom or kitchen corner assigned for casual dining.
Bohemians will love the look that’s been achieved with this old decorating trick: simply repaint an old outdoor bamboo setting that has weathered to grey. A bold bright semi-matt gloss hue applied to the aforementioned set you’ve saved from disposal will brightened any room it’s in. Dress it up with some pretty cushions and try it in a sunroom or kitchen corner assigned for casual dining.
Private screening
It’s a case of stealing the show with this decorative bamboo bathroom screen, but wait, I hear you cry, won’t it be damaged by moisture and mould? No, the lengths of bamboo have been embedded into a resin panel keeping the bamboo canes dry and their lovely knotty texture always visible. Also novel, but sealed for protection, is a rectangular bamboo vanity basin – who would have thought bamboo so versatile?
More ideas for screens
It’s a case of stealing the show with this decorative bamboo bathroom screen, but wait, I hear you cry, won’t it be damaged by moisture and mould? No, the lengths of bamboo have been embedded into a resin panel keeping the bamboo canes dry and their lovely knotty texture always visible. Also novel, but sealed for protection, is a rectangular bamboo vanity basin – who would have thought bamboo so versatile?
More ideas for screens
Real thing
If you have plenty of ventilation in your bathroom, by all means fashion a bamboo screen. It’s a cheap material so at least you can replace it if and when it starts to deteriorate.
If you have plenty of ventilation in your bathroom, by all means fashion a bamboo screen. It’s a cheap material so at least you can replace it if and when it starts to deteriorate.
Midas touch
A bamboo motif on wallpaper speaks of style and substance but also reflects a fascination with the exotic. Gold highlights light up the space of this small powder room – note the addition of a golden bamboo frame around the mirror.
Tamaki wallpaper: Romo
A bamboo motif on wallpaper speaks of style and substance but also reflects a fascination with the exotic. Gold highlights light up the space of this small powder room – note the addition of a golden bamboo frame around the mirror.
Tamaki wallpaper: Romo
Royal suite
Bamboo has come a long way since being harvested as a mere building material for humble huts in the jungle. Now it’s used to create furniture fit for an emperor. This four-poster king bed enjoys the strength of bamboo uprights (although one suspects there may be a more conventional timber frame support hidden beneath the mattress) while displaying the honey-coloured knotty textured poles that give the bed its sense of oriental grandeur.
Bamboo has come a long way since being harvested as a mere building material for humble huts in the jungle. Now it’s used to create furniture fit for an emperor. This four-poster king bed enjoys the strength of bamboo uprights (although one suspects there may be a more conventional timber frame support hidden beneath the mattress) while displaying the honey-coloured knotty textured poles that give the bed its sense of oriental grandeur.
Hollywood regency
Mother Nature provides inspiration for the most intriguing of wall covering designs, including this striking bamboo pattern in pink and green.
Mother Nature provides inspiration for the most intriguing of wall covering designs, including this striking bamboo pattern in pink and green.
Eco-lodging
Reconstituted bamboo makes tough planks and is popular with ecologically-sensitive architects who want to use the planks as hard-wearing flooring, but bamboo fashioned into panels is also being used instead of engineered timber boards for cabinetry. You can see it featured extensively here in the joinery of this walk-in robe.
Reconstituted bamboo makes tough planks and is popular with ecologically-sensitive architects who want to use the planks as hard-wearing flooring, but bamboo fashioned into panels is also being used instead of engineered timber boards for cabinetry. You can see it featured extensively here in the joinery of this walk-in robe.
Light-filled lantern
Bamboo is extremely strong and commonly used as scaffolding in Asia, but it’s also flexible enough for its fibres to be woven into textiles. When manufactured as ply, it can be easily bent into a variety of shapes. This makes it a perfect choice for light shades, such as this eco-conscious bamboo pendant.
Coral pendant light: David Trubridge
Bamboo is extremely strong and commonly used as scaffolding in Asia, but it’s also flexible enough for its fibres to be woven into textiles. When manufactured as ply, it can be easily bent into a variety of shapes. This makes it a perfect choice for light shades, such as this eco-conscious bamboo pendant.
Coral pendant light: David Trubridge
Floor level
You’d be forgiven for thinking that this beautifully striated floor was made from exotic zebrawood when, in fact, it is a type of bamboo flooring. Strand-woven solid bamboo floors are made from shredded bamboo fibres that are fused together with an adhesive and then compressed using heat and pressure.
What you need to know about bamboo flooring
You’d be forgiven for thinking that this beautifully striated floor was made from exotic zebrawood when, in fact, it is a type of bamboo flooring. Strand-woven solid bamboo floors are made from shredded bamboo fibres that are fused together with an adhesive and then compressed using heat and pressure.
What you need to know about bamboo flooring
Rise up
While bamboo has made a comeback as a design material in interior architecture, it is most commonly used as flooring. However, here a master craftsman has used it as both internal window framing as well as for the balustrade on a staircase.
More of this project
While bamboo has made a comeback as a design material in interior architecture, it is most commonly used as flooring. However, here a master craftsman has used it as both internal window framing as well as for the balustrade on a staircase.
More of this project
Bamboo curtain
Bamboo is such an impressive plant when it has grown to maturity. Pictured above, potted bamboo plants are used as an indoor privacy screen, dividing a dining area from a living room. Pictured left, thick strong canes are used to form a decorative screen divider between a master bedroom and ensuite bathroom.
Bamboo is such an impressive plant when it has grown to maturity. Pictured above, potted bamboo plants are used as an indoor privacy screen, dividing a dining area from a living room. Pictured left, thick strong canes are used to form a decorative screen divider between a master bedroom and ensuite bathroom.
Raw power
This dining room features a staircase that sports solid bamboo shafts for the balustrade, which have been individually cut, polished and installed within the stair treads.
This dining room features a staircase that sports solid bamboo shafts for the balustrade, which have been individually cut, polished and installed within the stair treads.
Bench press
Nearly every kitchen has by now a bowl or cutting board made of reconstituted bamboo, but look how the material can be used as an integral part of a kitchen design. Here, bamboo makes for a tough kitchen island benchtop, see close-up detail below, and is also used for the kitchen cupboard doors.
Nearly every kitchen has by now a bowl or cutting board made of reconstituted bamboo, but look how the material can be used as an integral part of a kitchen design. Here, bamboo makes for a tough kitchen island benchtop, see close-up detail below, and is also used for the kitchen cupboard doors.
TELL US
Have you used bamboo (as either a building material or decorative motif) in a novel way in your home? Are you happy with how it looks and wears? Tell us about it in the Comments section.
Have you used bamboo (as either a building material or decorative motif) in a novel way in your home? Are you happy with how it looks and wears? Tell us about it in the Comments section.
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Love the idea of bamboo. It's environmentally friendly, hard wearing & stylish. I have bamboo flooring downstairs & love it. I have never seen bamboo used for cabinet making. Does anyone know where this is available in Sydney?
Love that beautiful honey colour of bamboo - very versatile. None in the house at the moment but we are considering making bamboo screens for the windows.