Home and Family

Bamboo has become an increasingly popular material being used in products ranging from cabinets to flooring to furniture. But why is this building material so popular now as opposed to years ago when it was available? To answer that question accurately we’ll need to look at a growing trend in furniture and home products referred to as eco-friendly products or the green culture.

Eco-friendly products have been around for some time. Most of society just wasn’t taking notice. Now there are those who did and we should thank them for helping to turn us on to these earth friendly products. In the last 10 years a positive growing trend has developed to take an interest in our environment and making decisions with how we live that will offer a positive impact to the Earth around us. Bamboo lends itself very nicely into being mentioned as a very green resource. Bamboo is actually considered a plant and one of the best characteristics it has is that it grows very rapidly. Found predominantly throughout much of Asia, there exists many species of the bamboo plant. Bamboo grows to about 70 feet tall and can be harvested in 5-7 years. The base of the bamboo plant produces shoots which are used as food seasonally.

Bamboo that is harvested is so hard that efforts are being made throughout Asia to try to substitute it for conventional lumber. If we figure that a hardwood tree takes roughly 25-50 years of growth before it can be harvested bamboo seems to be the best green alternative for products that can be substituted out with this renewable timber. That may be the reason that you see bamboo being used in many flooring applications and cabinet products. Viewers of shows on channels like HGTV will notice the growing trends of consumers purchasing and installing bamboo throughout their homes.

Furniture is another product being made from bamboo. From bamboo beds to nightstands, dressers, tables, chairs and more bamboo can be found in many types of furniture. You’ll find that these items are also not always in the style or Oriental or Asian designs. American manufacturers of furniture are increasingly using bamboo and you’ll find traditional and even southwestern products using bamboo in their products. From a furniture stand point bamboo offers the same strength that domestic hard rock maple offers in the way of tensile strength. The exotic look of bamboo also lends itself well to creating a unique look not only in bedroom furniture but throughout the home making your home décor enhancing the look of your home.

In this article we’ve explored the green culture of eco-friendly bamboo. We’ve examined its positive benefits for the environment such as its ability to be harvested within 5-7 years and quickly grow back again making it an excellent renewable resource. It can be substituted for other materials as it is quite hard, even harder than maple wood which will help to preserve those resources. It has a wide range of uses from being made into bamboo beds, bamboo flooring and even bamboo cabinetry. With its rich exotic features bamboo provides a unique look for any home décor that will help make it more environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing to all those who pass by and see it in your home.