Bamboo is an exotic plant that is being used more and more in interior design. We find more and more furniture made of bamboo: tables, chairs, shelves, worktops... However, it is a rather special material that requires very specific protection and maintenance to keep it long enough. For this, several solutions exist: bamboo oils, bamboo varnish. Faced with all these products, you may find yourself lost and wonder: how do you maintain bamboo furniture ? In order to help you, we will explain the advantages and disadvantages of bamboo. We will give you all the advice you need to protect bamboo furniture or maintain a bamboo worktop.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF BAMBOO FURNITURE?
Bamboo is an exotic plant, very trendy and increasingly used indoors, especially on furniture to decorate or give a warm effect. It will give a charming and zen atmosphere to your interior.
Bamboo is ideal for furniture. It is a fairly durable material over time. It is fairly resistant to moisture, which prevents your bamboo furniture from warping. For example, bamboo can be found in kitchens as bamboo worktops. There are also bamboo bathrooms because it is moisture resistant, as we have just mentioned.
Bamboo is mainly offered in its natural colour. It is a relatively difficult wood to personalise. Another disadvantage is that bamboo worktops are heat-resistant. You don't need to put a hot pan on it. Bamboo also has a poor resistance to scratches, such as those caused by knives, for example.
WHICH PROTECTION FOR A PIECE OF BAMBOO FURNITURE: OIL OR BAMBOO VARNISH?
You can alleviate some inconveniences, especially scratches, by protecting your bamboo furniture with a bamboo varnish. The varnish is a product that creates a durable protection on the surface of your bamboo worktop, making it shock and scratch resistant and impervious to water and grease stains. The protection created by the varnish will last for several years without requiring any special maintenance. If you subsequently wish to apply another finishing product and carry out a renovation, the bamboo furniture will need to be lightly sanded.
We do not recommend the application of an oil on bamboo furniture exposed to scratches, water and food splashes as for furniture in a kitchen. This is because bamboo oil is a non-film-forming finish and will not create sufficient resistance to these stresses. On the other hand, bamboo is a material that is very little impregnatable by oils. An oiled finish will therefore be very fragile and not very resistant over time.
So, if you have a bamboo worktop in a kitchen, it is best to use a bamboo varnish because even if you are very careful you will have to rub, scratch and clean your worktop very frequently. You may ask yourself: can you varnish bamboo? Well yes, varnish is still the best protection for bamboo furniture. We recommend the Bamboo Furniture Varnish VMB500 . It is very easy to apply in two to three coats and dries very quickly (2 hours minimum and 24 hours maximum).
HOW TO CLEAN AND MAINTAIN BAMBOO FURNITURE ON A DAILY BASIS?
To maintain a varnished bamboo piece of furniture, you can clean it with hot water and black soap to remove some stains. For this purpose, we advise you to use Liquid Black Soap SN800. To remove dust from your bamboo furniture, a simple micro fibre cloth is sufficient.
