Handy stuff with our bamboo

We have several bamboo groves on our property. Consequently, we build a lot of things with it. Here are a few of the things we have made with the help of local carpenters, who had never made anything like these things before. I think they did well.

Bamboo dish drying rack. I bought a wooden one many years ago, and it lasted so long, but it finally fell apart and our assistant Jhun Solis, who is not really a carpenter copied it and rebuilt it in bamboo! I love it don't you?
Bamboo jewelry tree! I have so much bling. They were stashed for many years in clear boxes and I had to dig through each one to find what I wanted. Now it's all there for me to pick and choose. All with scrap bamboo from building our native deck. It also doubles as a hat rack!
When we built our new bedroom cottage, I didn't have anything to put the towels on and when I shopped for stainless steel towel rods, there were so expensive. Having seen these in a couple of hotels we stayed in, I showed the carpenter a photo and they came up with this. It works quite well.
Our entire wrap around deck is bamboo as are the guard rails.
Our place is small and there was nowhere to put our mops, dustbins etc., and they were always in sight, which wan't great, so I had them build this broom closet on our deck.  It now hides the necessary, but eyesore household tools.  It looks pretty good I think.

Bamboo kitchen cupboards. Again when I went to the local hardware store, the modern cupboards were so expensive, even so, I was willing to pay for them, but they were out of stock! So once more, our handy carpenters followed my instructions and came up with there. In back of the tea kettle is a screened bamboo wall, to keep with the open airy theme and allow ventilation. Things get moldy when totally closed up in the tropics.
I only have a small amount of counter space, and the microwave took up quite a bit of it, so we had the carpenter retrofit it into the far left cupboard. It works quite well there and I have my space back!

Bamboo couch bench! Dave even added electrical outlets for me to charge my laptop and ipad with.
Close up of the electrical outlet which is power by solar cells!
Crooked bamboo for the railings. The carpenters were not going to use the crooked bamboo, but I think it is beautiful. I had them come up with their own design for the railing with my basic guidelines. They once more, did a great job. We have a lot of coconut shells from making coconut milk.So we used them as end caps to keep the water out of the bamboo so they don't get waterlogged and begin to mold. A fried of ours said they look like dancing stick figures. That works for me.

Read more about the sustainable things we are learning to do on my other blog.

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