Who isn’t familiar with bamboo? In Indonesia, bamboo is very easy to cultivate, so we can use it for a variety of purposes, including interior design. Bamboo is commonly used as a material for furniture, and one of the most common pieces of furniture is the bamboo chair.
Bamboo chairs have long been a popular choice for homes and traditional restaurants alike. You might even have had a bamboo chair in your childhood home. But a bamboo chair is still a great option if you’re planning to buy a new chair. Why?
Bamboo chairs are inherently beautiful and make excellent home furnishings, especially if your home has a traditional or natural style. The natural color of bamboo chairs—a light brown that tends toward cream—means they don’t require excessive finishing. Bamboo chairs simply need to be smoothed out, provided the bamboo is already dry.
Preserving bamboo is also quite easy; it can be painted in a wood-brown color. Bamboo chairs are perfect for placing on the porch because they blend well with the garden, and adding a bamboo table can further enhance the design of your porch. Bamboo chairs also make an attractive addition to the dining room or living room.
Essentially, bamboo is quite easy to cultivate across Asia—from Southeast Asia to East Asia, including Indonesia—making bamboo chairs quite familiar to people in the region. Due to its accessibility, many Indonesians have long utilized bamboo effectively, from bamboo cultivation to bamboo craftsmanship.
In fact, it’s not uncommon for Indonesian designers and artists to use bamboo in their work. By purchasing Indonesian-made bamboo chairs, you’re not only beautifying your home but also supporting authentic Indonesian craftsmanship.
As previously mentioned, bamboo is very easy to cultivate in Asian countries, including Indonesia. Because of its abundance, there is a plentiful supply of bamboo ready to be made into furniture, including bamboo chairs. Indonesian artisans find it easy to work with bamboo.
The process, from planting the raw material to producing ready-to-use bamboo chairs, is relatively simple in Indonesia, as the artisans working with it only need a workshop with basic tools. This contrasts with other chairs on the market—which are factory-made—that require extensive materials and a lengthy production process (even though they are mass-produced). All of these factors mean that many bamboo chairs in Indonesia are sold at quite affordable prices, although there are also some bamboo chairs specially designed by professional designers, so there are also bamboo chairs that are quite expensive.
Bamboo is a plant that grows very easily. In a single day, bamboo can grow about 10 cm, so it can be harvested quickly and the land is ready to be used for planting new bamboo, unlike teak wood furniture, for example, which takes decades to be ready for use as an expensive furniture material. Since the raw material is organic, bamboo chairs are quite eco-friendly; moreover, they require little paint, so they decompose easily in the soil once they’re no longer in use.
Pay close attention if you’re planning to buy a new bamboo chair. If necessary, you can ask the manufacturer how they treat the bamboo. If it’s properly treated, a bamboo chair can be a durable piece of furniture for your home. Bamboo chairs typically last for 7 years. But don’t worry if your bamboo chair eventually gets damaged, as bamboo chairs are relatively easy to repair, given that the material is readily available and there are many bamboo craftsmen in Indonesia.
Of course, bamboo chairs aren’t the only bamboo-based furniture you’ll see—there are also bamboo tables, bamboo basket decorations, and even new bamboo innovations like bamboo lamps. Bamboo is also frequently used as a construction material for traditional-style buildings.
Since bamboo is a material commonly found in everyday life, bamboo chairs are easy to pair with other furniture. For example, bamboo chairs are often sold as a set with bamboo tables. Another factor that makes them easy to pair is their color, which is similar to that of other woods, so don’t hesitate to combine them with your favorite wooden shelves or cabinets!
–sh
