As a beautiful, sustainable wood, bamboo is gaining popularity as a wall treatment. It’s an extremely fast-growing plant, replacing itself rapidly. It’s also durable, attractive, and versatile. It’s best to keep this option for indoor walls only, though, experts advise. Bamboo can rapidly become invasive if planted outdoors.
There are various ways you can use bamboo to decorate your walls. It’s quite versatile, suiting the taste of those who like dark woods to lovers of blond wood finishes. In fact, bamboo can be lovely even with minimal finishing. Here are some ideas and tips on bamboo wall treatments.
Grow Your Own
A living wall is a creative, unique, and attractive way to give a whole new look to a wall. Because it grows so fast, a few pots lined up along the base of a wall will grow up and take over much of the wall space. Vary the height by placing some of the pots on shelves or small tables along the wall.
You might want to use stakes in the pots to encourage the bamboos to grow more upward than outward – bamboo can get very curvy and entangled with neighboring plants. Keeping the pots at least 15 inches apart will help prevent entanglement as well. Make sure the pots have trays under them to catch excess water.
Wallpaper
Bamboo can be made into wallpaper, thanks to its fibrous nature. Bamboo wallpaper is not always in a bamboo design; in fact, some designs are indistinguishable from traditional wallpaper. But if you like a textural effect, bamboo wallpaper with a three-dimensional texture is available. There is even wallpaper that features realistic photos of bamboo.
Tiles
Unlike flat, square tiles, bamboo tiles are curved outward. The flat side is mounted to the wall while the curved side faces out. It can make a room look very interesting from a textural standpoint, and might look particularly nice in a room with a low ceiling. Bamboo tiles provide a natural look, and such a wall could make a great place for your houseplants. Styles run from complex to simple, with intricate patterns bringing a higher price tag than the simpler styles.
Floors and Walls
Some designers sing the praises of using flooring on walls. Bamboo flooring especially lends itself to this kind of treatment, creating a warm, simple, woodsy look to the area near the wall. If you use flooring, you can arrange the boards horizontally or vertically. Vertical boards can give the illusion of height to the ceiling, and horizontal ones tend to have a more anchoring effect.
