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Posts Tagged ‘Bamboo’

The thought of bamboo furniture conjures up images of beach houses and squeaky chairs for most people, does it for you? Don’t worry, you are not alone in that thought, but with the popularity of bamboo as a commercial and industrial product, the bamboo furniture of yore is slowly becoming more fashionable and comfortable.

Though many believe bamboo to be a tree, it is actually a grass. Yes, it is a grass and a large grass at that. There are several varieties that can encompass vast amounts of land and can grow upwards to eighty feet tall; the more common types used for furniture range in diameter from two inches to seven. While it grows quickly, it does take up to seven years for the bamboo to thoroughly dry out and harden for furniture production.

However, compared to its hard wood cousin that takes around six decades to mature into a size worth harvesting, bamboo is still a better and quicker alternative. Despite being a grass species, bamboo is just as strong as any tree when harvested and treated.

While you may want that beach feeling on your patio or sun room, most people want a stylish, yet comfortable look to their decor. Yes, there are still those Tiki hut styled furniture sets still out there, so don’t worry. You can still build your island oasis off your backyard swimming pool with furniture that looks island authentic; but for those homeowners hoping to add environmentally friendly, eco-centric furniture to their household, welcome to the new world of bamboo furniture.

Bamboo furniture has transitioned well from the old versions, becoming much more refined as the years have gone on. Since bamboo is popular, many companies are invested much more time and energy into incorporating this sturdy, hard wood alternative into their repertoires.

But first, prior to purchasing your new furniture, do some homework. Do not just trust the first product you see. It may not be made of real bamboo, but a plastic press made to look like bamboo. If you are looking for the real thing, research. There are ample amounts of web sites that host bamboo furniture, in different styles, shapes, colors. You can get an entire room suite or just that one piece you have been looking for over the years.

Most individual homeowners will put bamboo style furniture on their back porch, as it feels more like an outdoor style, but bamboo can be utilized indoors as well. Go crazy, think outside the box! You do not have to have bamboo furniture outside; you can bring the island oasis indoors if you want. It is completely up to you and your design ideas.

Bamboo is so versatile that it can be produced in just about every color imaginable and any style, shape or size you desire. All you have to do is research and scout out the different types of bamboo furniture made. Remember, bamboo is pest resistant, so wherever it goes, you will not have to worry about little bugs destroying your new furniture.

Have you ever considered bamboo cabinets for your house? If not, you should try it. They look very natural and stylish. You can give the interiors of your house, a niche via opting for them, as these would not be found in many houses.

You can enjoy several benefits via going in for bamboo cabinets as a part your home interior decoration. First, bamboo is known to be a durable yet very eco-friendly source of furniture.

Bamboo cabinets are very beautiful to look at any part of your house from bathroom to the living room and even kitchen. These cabinets will provide the same amount of elegance irrespective of the place they are installed.

Bamboo cabinets are very strong in nature as compared to wood. This is also environment friendly. If you were considering some fittings for your kitchen, they would make a great choice. These are available in a huge variety of colors and designs and most importantly, your kitchen will look tidy and mess free. They are also good for the environment of your house.

Another benefit of using bamboo cabinets is that these are quite handy and stylish. They are sturdy and has greater amount of resistance. The resistance amount is about 15 per cent more than any wood, oak or maple.

You would have a choice of elegant natural colors such as gray, yellow, black and green. You may also opt for blond, natural bamboo color, dark amber or carbonized caramel color.

Bamboo is extremely light in weight and consists of much more expansion and contraction capacity as compared to that of wood.

If you have been convinced to purchase bamboo cabinets for your home interiors by now, you can set out to a local store near you and buy the ones that suit your home interiors.

There are many things you need to take into consideration when purchasing bamboo cabinets. Here are certain important things to consider:

• Quality: Remember that the quality of cabinet construction is directly proportionate to itâ??sâ?? durability and in turn your satisfaction with the product quality. Hence, it is very important to consider the construction quality when purchasing any bamboo furniture.

• Custom or RTA: Bamboo cabinets are available in two categories. These can be either customized according to the customerâ??s choice or available as ready-to-assemble.

• Adhesives used: It is very important to consider the adhesives used in the raw materials to make bamboo cabinets. You can benefit from a greener and healthier home environment if it is made with Low formaldehyde or Low Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC).

• Stability: Bamboo is known to be a dimensionally stable furniture choice. This is very beneficial when it comes to marketing a choice for furniture for places with high quantity of moisture such as bathroom and kitchen. The moisture may cause wooden furniture to swell. However, this is not the case with bamboo furniture.

Bamboo cabinets will prove to be an elegant, cost effective and environment friendly option for your home interiors.

We have all seen it: pandas sitting in trees, chewing on long stalks of bamboo, carefree and happy. But Bamboo is fast becoming the eco-friendly alternative to many every day products. Between bamboo clothing, bed linens, and hardwood flooring, as well as bamboo furniture, utilizes this versatile grass.

Yes, you read that correctly. Grass! Bamboo is a grass, and a renewal resource. Bamboo is normally used for landscaping, to make a backyard more attractive and appealing to the homeowners. But bamboo has other uses as well. Soil erosion is a common problem with new construction sites around the world. Most industries have better management practices in place to avoid soil erosion on new construction sites, and bamboo is a great addition to new construction sites to avoid soil erosion.

Planting bamboo not only keeps soil erosion to a minimum; it can slow rain run off by creating a barrier for the rain to hit as it runs down an incline, either natural or man made. With over 1,200 varieties of bamboo in the world, there is clearly a bamboo alternative for every one of our daily needs.

Bamboo has been used for centuries in Asia, from a source of food to home construction, and it is only now that the western world is catching on to the source that Asia has hidden for centuries. Bamboo is as durable as any known wood used for building materials, but has a much shorter growth span. That is, it only takes weeks for bamboo to grow to lengths which can be utilized, whereas trees take decades. The quickness at which bamboo grows means that there is plenty of bamboo that can be made available for material use.

It also is a great addition to any yard or home. Since bamboo is a grass, which has leaves, it can help filter the air of toxins and breathe back out fresh clean oxygen for us to breath. Having bamboo in your house is not only considered good luck in Asian cultures, but it can keep the air you are breathing clean and fresh. It is also an attractive addition to your office or living room. Green is a stress reducing color, so having a deep green bamboo plant growing in the corner of your house can help you reduce your daily stress.

If you are sold on bamboo, there are plenty of products for which you can decorate your house or backyard patio with. There is bamboo furniture, bamboo wind chimes, and bamboo lanterns which you can add to your bamboo laden garden. Whether or not you want a bamboo awning, it can be found should you want one. Bamboo can be made into just about anything; you just need to use your imagination.

Just remember to keep your bamboo watered. Unlike most household plants, bamboo needs lots of water. That is unless you are trying to dry out your bamboo to make a home made fishing pole! Then dry it out, get your bobbin and go fishing.

One of the most enduring images of India’s freedom struggle is that of Mahatma Gandhi setting out on the Salt March in 1930, on a 140 kilometre trek from Ahmedabad to Dandi. All he had by the way of support were the multitudes behind him, and the bamboo stave by his side. The bamboo in his hands, today more than ever before, is one of the newest hopes for a sustainable future. Found in almost every kind of climate and region, from cold mountains to tropical forests and marsh lands, the bamboo is the fastest growing plant on our planet. Environmentalists believe that if bamboo were used in a major way in afforestation programs the world over, there would be a significant reduction in global warming. Here are some of its other benefits to humans and their environments –

• It is one of the cheapest renewable sources of building material available to man.
• At the same time, it provides rural communities with a sustainable livelihood.
• It is one of the fastest growing components of forests, and thus plays an important role in the development of animal habitats.
• It costs neither a lot of energy nor money, to cultivate.
• Bamboo has been an important part of art, music, tradition and ceremonies through out the Asian continent.

Varieties

There are approximately 91 general and about 1000 species of bamboo around the globe. These vary in height from about one foot plants to giant bamboos that grow over 100 feet. Broadly speaking, Bamboo is divided into 2 main classifications – Running Bamboo and Clumping Bamboo.

1. Running Bamboo – This type of Bamboo travels under the soil using creeping rhizomes and emerges out of the ground at a distance from the original source. This variety is normally found in temperate climate countries like China and Japan. It is very effective in binding the soil together as the rhizome intersection is extensive and strong. Each joint of the Running bamboo stem has a single bud, which in many cases grow to become a new bamboo clump.
2. Clumping Bamboo – In this variety, the clump and the rhizome are a single entity, in which the upper portion of the rhizome has buds. The bud then grow into a new rhizome which turns upwards and emerges, from the ground, as a second clump close to the original. This variety can also be grown from cuttings. They are normally found more in tropical and semi tropical climates.

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Do you often hear yourself asking that very simple question? Why bamboo? Why should I invest in bamboo clothing, bamboo furniture, bamboo household goods, bamboo landscaping? Why should I choose bamboo? I ask, why not?
Bamboo is an underutilized renewal resource that is just as effective and sturdy as conventional hard wood materials, such as oak, pine, and maple. Bamboo can be dried, treated, molded and fashioned into virtually any shape, size or form, and stain a motley of different shades. It is less expensive to manufacture and it can be replenished quickly in nature. So why not bamboo?
If you are still not convinced, think about this. Trees can take almost sixty years to grow and mature to the appropriate size for logging. That means, if you plant a tree today, sometime in six decades, your grandchildren will be able to harvest that tree. It also means that the natural resources trees offer is being depleted quicker than we can restore them.
Yet, with bamboo, it takes an average of sixty days for them to grow and mature to the appropriate size and an average of five years to be dried and treated. Think of how many crops of bamboo could be harvested, treated and sold in the time it would take to grow one tree!
With bamboos versatility, it can virtually eliminate the need to timber trees, which means deforestation can be reversed. We can finally leave the Amazon rainforest alone, because we have a renewal resource in plentiful amounts across the world.
Still not convinced? Bamboo also accounts for carbon dioxide reduction. As we destroy forest after forest, the carbon dioxide emissions produced by humans is increasing. The only natural way to reduce carbon dioxide is to have plants available for air filtering. Plants absorb the CO2 and release back the clean oxygen molecules into the air for us to breath. Hence, carbon dioxide emissions are reduced.
Bamboo is practically indestructible. Bamboo was the only plant known to survive the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in World War II, and also provided the first signs of green life after the bombing. A plant that can survive an atomic blast? Why haven’t we utilized this plant sooner?
Bamboo is also used in erosion control. Tobacco farmers in the southern United States use the thickly stalked bamboo to prevent wind erosion on their tobacco crops. New construction and landscapers have used bamboo as soil erosion and rain run off control. With it being naturally pest resistant, bamboo is an optimal choice for any lawn and garden.
If you still question if bamboo should be utilized, there are plenty of web sites that can offer more information on the scientific, industrial and environmental ways bamboo can help the planet. Bamboo is a vibrant, lively addition to any yard, and could just be the next major industrial material used by companies throughout the world. Just a few changes, and trees across the planet can rejoice. Natural habitats and indigenous plants can be saved. Regions can revive to their once splendor.
So again I ask, why not bamboo?