Blog Posts

Faux Bamboo Furniture: Palm Beach's Forever Style

Some trends cycle. Faux bamboo just stays. It has been in style for about two hundred years, it is practically the official furniture of Palm Beach, and it is one of the most searched materials in vintage furniture today. Here is the short history and a practical guide to styling it. A two-hundred-year head start Faux bamboo took off in Regency-era England, when carved beech was painted to imitate bamboo imported from Asia. It rode the chinoiserie wave through the 1800s and landed in America in force in the 1960s and 1970s. That is the era collectors hunt now: Thomasville Allegro, Drexel, Broyhill, and the king of them all, Henry Link's Bali Hai line for Lexington. These were well-made pieces with dovetail drawers and real brass hardware, which is why so many survive. Why it defines Palm Beach style Faux bamboo is light without being flimsy, tropical without being theme-y, and dressy without being stiff. It pairs with rattan, wicker, bright prints, and white walls, the entire South Florida vocabulary. Estates from Boca Raton to Palm Beach were furnished with it for decades, which is why so much of what we source carries the look. How to style it now The easiest entry point is a dresser. A yellow or white faux bamboo dresser in a bedroom reads collected, not themed; see our vintage dressers and chests of drawers for what is in stock. A pair of nightstands flanking a bed is the second classic move. In a dining room, high-back rattan and faux bamboo dining chairs around a glass or lacquered table is a look that has never missed. And if you only buy one small piece, make it a bar cart. One tip from years of handling these: check the finish description and photos closely. Original factory paint in good shape is the prize, and honest wear is fine as long as you know what you are getting. We list condition plainly on every piece, and we will always send more photos on request.