Bamboo is a great material to use for a variety of home products because it is both a renewable resource and incredibly versatile. Of the many bamboo products available for purchase bamboo blinds and shades stand out because they serve a number of functions.
Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on the Earth. It reaches full height in just 5 years. Bamboo can grow an incredible 60cms in one day because of its rhizome-dependent system. It also requires less water than trees and produces more oxygen than an equivalent mass of trees. And to make bamboo more amazing, it can be grown without pesticides or fertilizer because it has a natural resistance to pests and pathogens.
The great thing about bamboo is that although it is classified as a grass into can be used as replacement for hardwood. Bamboo is strong, hard and durable enough to be used for strand woven bamboo flooring, chopping boards, furniture and housing. It is therefore, more than strong enough to be a wall treatment.
Bamboo blinds are different to bamboo shades in that blinds have moveable slats or louvers. These let in more sunlight or diminish sunlight. In contrast bamboo shades are often made from small slats called ‘matchstick bamboo’ that cannot be adjusted. To alter the amount of sunlight in a room with bamboo shades it is necessary to roll them up or down.
Bamboo blinds tend to be made of bigger regular slats of bamboo and often give a contemporary and natural feel to a room, whereas bamboo shades are more feminine and give a room an Oriental quality.
As window treatments bamboo blinds and shades don’t offer as much insulation as curtains but they have a number of advantages over curtains.
Firstly, to buy bamboo blinds and shades costs much less than to buy curtains. Secondly, bamboo blinds and shades are relatively easy to install. They offer something different to a room and bamboo is a naturally antimicrobial and anti-allergenic material – much more so than fabrics that offer a place for dust mites to live. This means bamboo blinds and shades are more suitable for people with allergies and asthma.
As you can see there is more to bamboo blinds and shades than you may have originally thought.
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