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What is Rattan Furniture?

Rattan furniture is furniture made fromthe rattan vine. The rattan vine is common in tropical areas such asSE Asia. The vine, which being a natural material, can be found inall sizes and shapes, lends itself well to weaving by the wicker method. However wicker weaving with rattan is not particularlystraight forward.

Rattan Garden Furniture

The vine is stiff in the natural stateand requires direct heat to become workable. As soon as the heat isremoved the rattan stiffens in place. This stiffening is good forfurniture making. The wicker becomes stiff and rigid offeringstrength to the furniture. Most traditional rattan furniture ismounted on a hardwood frame, generally made from teak.

Strathwood Camano All-Weather Wicker Storage Box    

 

 

Strathwood Camano All-Weather Wicker Sun Lounger Chair, Brown    

 

What is Synthetic Rattan Garden Furniture?

Synthetic rattan garden furniture differs from traditional rattan in a number of ways. The rattan vineis replaced by a man made synthetic poly weave. This poly weave isusually made from a plastic or PVC and can be spun into any diameteror color of weave. In effect synthetic rattan garden furniture isactually plastic wicker furniture. The synthetic weave is oftenmounted on a aluminium frame that offers good strong and robustsupport whilst being light enough to be used as garden furniturewhich may be moved around a lot.

Why would anyone bother with asynthetic copy of a traditional rattan furniture set, you might ask?Traditional rattan has a potential drawback, it does not fair well indamp or wet conditions. It is great for indoor furniture or evengarden furniture that is stored away after use, but for many of us wemay not have storage room for such furniture when the climate turnsagainst us. If we were to leave natural rattan furniture out in poorweather conditions we would run the risk of the vine developing mouldand mildew which can be unsightly and difficult to remove.Rattan Garden Furniture

With a synthetic rattan set dampconditions are not a problem. This means if we don't have storageroom we can still enjoy rattan style furniture which, generally, hasa very stylish look to it. A further enhancement is that with asynthetic or poly rattan set you can easily clean the furniture witha hose and brush if required.

Additionally, poly rattan is usuallycheaper than the natural version. Because it is made from man madematerials the furniture can be produced in any country without theneed for vast natural vine resources near by. So a synthetic setsaves on shipping costs and often on production costs as it can bemade by machine on a production line.

Poly rattan is often available in moredesign styles simply because the man made material is more workablethan the natural material leading to a wider variety of choice. Thismakes synthetic rattan garden furniture a good choice of gardenfurniture over natural rattan or other types of garden set.