“I want to say one word to you. Just one word.” While in the 1967 movie The Graduate, it was “Plastics,” we’re all reconsidering surrounding ourselves with petroleum-based products. Instead, today’s word is bamboo.
If you’re looking for an environmentally sustainable material in modern designs to solve small space living problems, look no further than bamboo. Prices range from Ikea-level affordable bamboo furniture and more, to Zero-Waste retailers of bath and body options, to high-end designers. Regardless of your budget, cute, fashionable, and apartment friendly furniture, kitchen accessories, and bath products abound.
Bamboo Farmers Harvest from the Same Quickly Growing Plants
To ground you in some quick facts, know that bamboo:
- Produces 35% more oxygen than trees.
- Grows incredibly quickly. Since it keeps growing with intact roots after frequent cuttings off the top it’s also environmentally sustainable.
- Stores carbon efficiently, so could play a vital role in stabilizing the earth’s atmosphere.
- Thrives in otherwise challenging soil and protects against erosion.
- Serves as a substitute for wood and plastic in consumer products, one of its many useful properties, which include as a biofuel. You can even eat its shoots.
If you want to read up on these and other bamboo facts, check out my sources – articles from the International Fund for Agricultural Development, The Guardian and The Scientific World Journal.
Buying products for your home supports its production. Though still mostly grown in Asia, read up on how American bamboo is fast becoming a growth area for commercial farmers as well.
Bamboo Furniture Pieces Elegantly Solve Your Small Space Storage Needs
Category: Bamboo Furniture
Place: Add storage to your bedroom or living room.
Usage: Tie your style together with bamboo, and find small-space friendly organizing elements.
Products: A bamboo corner shelf adds storage next to the sink in a bathroom or kitchen and makes use of those hard-to-reach spots in lower cabinets.
Look for a bamboo coffee table with a shelf below for storage. The subtle bamboo grains provide a focal point for your main living area.
Place a bamboo rolling cart in a corner of your small kitchen to add counter and storage space in one. Bring it out of the kitchen on wheels for a drink stand at your next party.
Small spaces often cry out for more places to put clothing. Even if you have a closet – and many small spots don’t – a stand-alone bamboo wardrobe gives you extra hanging and folding spaces. It also adds structure that lets you display your capsule wardrobe as decor.
Tuck a tall, skinny bamboo shelving unit in a corner, next to a couch, or behind your bed. Horizontal storage means a small footprint and plenty of shelves to stack sweaters, books, plants, or linens.
Vibe: Bamboo furniture feels smooth to the touch. Its light color and the combination of strength and flexibility make it particularly versatile. It’s durable and attractive. According to ArchDaily, “Bamboo is a choice that seamlessly blends elegance with sustainability in interior projects,” and has become the, “Choice for architects, designers, and homeowners seeking to create spaces that are not only visually captivating but also environmentally conscious.”
Eco-Friendly Bonafides: Unlike cutting down trees for furniture, bamboo harvesting leaves the roots intact. Plants regrow from those same bases, at a growth rate that exceeds most trees.
Choose Eco-Friendly Bamboo Kitchen Accessories For Steaming and Storage
Category: Bamboo Food Storage and Cooking Accessories
Place: Small kitchens benefit from bamboo.
Usage: Store, prepare, and steam your meals with touches of bamboo.
Products: Food storage containers with bamboo lids combine healthy, dishwashable, reusable glass bases covered with attractive bamboo tops. They look great out in the open to store coffee, flour, or cereal.
Store your tea or coffee Japanese style in a bamboo tea canister with a spoon. Create a warm, modern feel in your kitchen, or conserve space in a cupboard with the container’s small footprint and tall vertical.
Try a bamboo cutting board in the kitchen – so appealing you can use it to serve appetizers as well.
Look for sturdy and eco-friendly bamboo flatware organizers and other bamboo trays as an alternative to plastic molded ones. Create a minimalist look in your kitchen and make the best use of your drawers.
Bamboo straws and cutlery score visual and environmental points over disposable plastic for bagged lunches or parties.
Don’t forget a classic Asian bamboo steamer for a healthy cooking option. Stack them on top of each other to efficiently use a single burner, even a rice cooker, to steam multiple layers of dumplings, meat, or vegetables.
Vibe: With its cool tones and environmental boost, bamboo in your kitchen brings a modern, clean look with solid, durable construction. Don’t put it in the dishwasher, but do keep it clean and dry.
Eco-Friendly Bonafides: Plastics take between 100-1000 years to decompose, lifetimes more than bamboo. Keep an eye out for local acceptance of bamboo cutlery and straws by composters – not all do.
Bask in a Warm, Cozy, Gleam with Bamboo Lighting Options
Category: Bamboo Lamps and Pendants
Place: Upgrade your lighting throughout your apartment or tiny home.
Usage: Cast a beautiful glow by choosing woven bamboo instead of glass light fixtures.
Products: Hang bamboo pendant lights from the ceiling – in a row above a breakfast bar or in the middle of your bedroom. Introduce a warm, natural glow and rest assured that the lightweight woven designs make them easy to hang.
Or consider bamboo flush mount lighting to get a room full of brightness with a lamp that stays out of the way of traffic.
For a concentrated lighting need, near a chair, on a nightstand, or in a dark corner, look for bamboo floor and table lamps in an array of styles.
Vibe: Bamboo lighting fits with modern, retro, or minimalist decor.
Eco-Friendly Bonafides: Woven bamboo lamps built from strips of fast-growing bamboo stalks last, yet unlike most design materials, decompose at the end of their use. You can even make one yourself.
Replace Plastic Bathroom Items with Eco-Conscious Bamboo
Category: Bamboo Bathroom and Beauty Accessories
Place: Tuck them next to the sink or in a bathroom storage bin.
Usage: Beautify your bathroom accessories and your daily get-ready routine with bamboo touches.
Products: Try a bamboo bathtub caddy with room for a book or tablet, candle, glass of wine, even a candle holder.
Look for a bamboo nail brush to scrub away that post-work grime.
Extend the life of your natural bar with a bamboo soap holder to keep water draining off of it.
Look for bamboo combs and brushes – for you or your kids – with bamboo or other natural material bristles.
Vibe: Bamboo bathroom accessories transform your every day into a spa day.
Eco-Friendly Bonafides: Choose bamboo as a material that regenerates quickly and keep a bit more plastic out of your house and off of your body.
Choose Bamboo Apartment Touches to Organize Your Life
Bamboo, quickly growing, continually harvested, sturdy, durable, flexible, and modern looking, serves as an excellent material for your small space living. Use it to organize your life, reduce the plastics in your home, and introduce a consistent, attractive, and eco-friendly design element throughout your apartment.
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