Sometimes natural things are made for aesthetic reasons, sometimes for sustainable & ethical reasons and sometimes purely for pragmatic, financial reasons... this project started with all 3.
My Thai herbal products business, Pure Thai Natural Co Ltd is in the process of licensing our new post-covid premises (after the owner of the previous leased building was foreclosed), which involves a large, public showroom. And it's BIG and echoey and all very clean-cream-beige-glass-tile. In this post-Covid-no-tourist era, we now ship most of our orders direct to customers or deliver them in bulk to our retail outlets. The idea of a physical shop is rapidly becoming very 1990s. But still we need a space for potential wholesale customers and we'll be having an inspection of our premises very soon. So despite us having people come to our "showroom" very infrequently since Covid, we still need to have it attractive and publicly presentable in a natural kind-of way. And so I decided I wanted a table to help break up a VERY large institutional room. Having looked at a HUGE number of boring domestic tables and very, very expensive arty tables, I decided we needed to get more creative. And decided to make something innovative from big bamboo with a glass top. For artfully show-casing baskets of herbs, a few products, cards and brochures etc.
But first, I needed to test my idea, since I'm not a builder. And so I'm making matching (much smaller) bamboo planter boxes as a practice run. 3 in all. To fill up 3 empty corners and bring some life and greenery indoors to show off a little of what we do.
So off to the bamboo-wood yard I went, which is conveniently 200 meters from the office.
This bamboo - all of it? 6 x almost 4m long pieces was 90 baht. USD $2.76. 😊 The owner of the woodyard was pretty happy to have made ANY sale, and it felt good to support a local guy doing it hard.
Cut it to lengths with a hand saw. No need for the gym today. 😆
Bit of drill time and then some creative threading with some sturdy wire.
And Voila!
The planter box is decorative, so the wire didn't need to be too serious, but for the table I will use a heavier gauge wire. Pondering to use soaked thin bamboo-rattan strips on the table for a more professional, decorative look, but need to have a play first. When the bigger table base is done, I plan to attach 6 little non-slip rubber stoppers on the top to secure the piece of custom glass I'm having cut for the top. Cost of the glass top? About USD $15 for a sturdy, safety glass.
Meanwhile, what's going to go in the planter boxes? The front showroom gets a LOT of sun, so they need to be heat and light lovers. So I'm digging up some of the ginger from my garden at home, maybe a potted lime tree and the third one to be a small ylang ylang tree, since they do well in pots. Plain terracotta pots are CHEAP in Thailand - a decent terracotta tub (18-20 inches across) with a saucer is only about USD $6.
When the table is finished, it will have a beautiful flowering orchid in the center.
And so I'm off to do some digging & potting and complete the other 2 boxes, and look forward another day to showing you how the table has worked out.
Enjoying the DIY process & feeling capable!
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