#bamboo screen

James Roy Hopkins (1877-1969, American) ~ The Bamboo Screen, n/d

I have been showcasing and writing about projects in Vietnam for more than 8 years. Its getting better with every year. The Vietnamese are a hardworking culture and when I see the landscapes I know how well they have executed the project. Take the following project in case. Its an Office building but in a “resort style”.

“The front garden set the external elevation back in a proper distance, enough to create a buffer zone for the interior views towards the frontage. The approach to the lobby is a transition of many different space enclosures: the front garden, the shady entranceway, and the central garden.

Behind a green screen wall of cable climber plant, yellow Mandevilla, playing the role of the doorway to the interior, there is a combination of internal transition areas along with the vertical circulation and corridors. This transitional space planning creates gradual adaptation for the temperature to remain comfortable between adjacent places. The provision of a large reflective water feature occupying 1/5 of the garden area, which positively contributes to the microclimate improvement of the outdoor areas under the heat of the south Vietnam sun. Besides, the suspended roof of over 200 sqm coverage creates a shady buffer space from the openings below. The diversity of open spaces in different directions and levels allows people to access the open-air easily and implies the idea of encouraging outdoor activities for people working in the building.

This past summer a cousin of ours moved in with her boyfriend and she needed to get rid of some of her stuff.  We got some nick nacks, an old trunk (SCORE!), a queen headboard, some lamps, and this bamboo screen:

These were so cool a LONGGGG time ago, but now....ehh, not so much!  Once I saw the screen, I knew I wanted to turn it into something cool and useful!  One bamboo screen would turn into a foyer table AND curtains for the bay window in our kitchen!

The first thing I did was take the screens apart, then I pulled out all the staples that were holding the bamboo to the frame. (Sorry there are no step by step pics of each step). Then I took all the bamboo panels and measured the bay window and cut them accordingly. Since the bamboo panels were not the correct width, I sewed ribbon ties made of grey/white striped fabric and glued 2 panels on either side of the ribbon and then glued another piece of sewn ribbon on top to hide the glue job.  I did this to all 3 window coverings.  You can see that the middle window is larger, so I had to glue 3 bamboo panels together.

After each window panel was finished, I took a 1/8" width scrap wood and cut it to match the width of each window panel and nailed it (along with the panel) to the top jamb of the window.  This would stablize the panels and keep the bamboo from sagging.  I knew that since there wasn't much bamboo to work with, I wouldn't have enough to run the length of each window...but I was ok with that, since we have an awesome canyon view in our backyard!  So even though they look as though you can unroll them, you can't =)  Here is a close up view of one of the windows:

Once all the bamboo was used for the windows, I had a lot of scrap wood leftover.  So I went to my dad (or POPS as I like to call him!) and asked him to help me build a table.  He took one good look at all the scrap wood, and thought I was CRAZY!  But after talking it out we came up with a plan.  We decided that the scrap wood could be used to frame out the top of the table, as well as underneath it.  We had to buy plywood for the table top, and those staircase THING-A-MA-JIGGERS for the legs...yea, I don't know what the heck those are called!  After going through my pops' safety course about cutting wood =P, and putting everything together, I gave it two coats (everything but the table top) of this spray paint:

This is the table in our foyer:

And this is the table up close:

The frame that's on the table has all of our photobooth pics, and if you look hard enough at it, it tells our story in chronological order...the first 2 are of me and the hubs pre-marriage, the 3rd one is the photobooth pic of us we took for our wedding favors, the 4th one is of the 4 us right after Amelia was born, and then the last 2 were taken at the hubs' work party 2 yrs. ago.  And the large glass jar to the right houses our collection of seashells we find everytime we go to the beach.  I also put up some frames of us from a couple years ago, and some other simple decorative touches.

The chalkboard hanging above the table, in case you were wondering, was actually an old reproduced painting that my parents had in their garage that they wanted to get rid of.  So I took it, spray painted the frame white and painted chalkboard paint on the inside of the frame.  Now whenever I get inspired or have an epiphany I write it on the chalkboard. =)