Cane Back Dining Chair in Natural Rattan

A cane webbed back on a solid frame, the pattern every good dining chair used before upholstery got cheap. Light enough to lift with one hand and strong enough to lean back on, which most of them are not.

Three words get used interchangeably and only one of them is a material. Rattan is a climbing palm that grows through the forest canopy in Indonesia and the Philippines and reaches maturity in five to seven years. Cane is the outer skin of that same palm, stripped off and used flat for weaving and binding. Wicker is not a material at all, it is a weave, and you can wicker rattan, willow, seagrass or paper cord. Almost every shop selling this furniture uses the three words as though they were the same thing, which is why so much of what is sold as rattan turns out to be dyed paper cord over a steel frame. Everything here says which it is, on every listing, and if it is not rattan we do not call it rattan.

Specification

• Dimensions: 480mm wide by 550mm deep by 750mm high
• Seat or working height: seat height 460mm, or 400mm for the tub chair
• Frame: solid hardwood or steam bent rattan, mortice and tenon at every joint
• Weave: hand woven cane webbing in the back, six way pattern
• Finish: natural rattan pole and peel, steam bent over a former and bound at every joint, finished in a clear matt lacquer that lets the cane keep its own colour
• Load rating: tested to 120kg to EN 12520
• Indoor or outdoor: Indoors, or a covered veranda or conservatory that stays dry. Natural rattan is not garden furniture and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a chair that will go grey, swell, split and unravel inside two seasons. If you want rattan outdoors you want woven polyethylene, which is a good product honestly described and something we do not sell.
• Assembly: Arrives fully assembled and wrapped. Nothing to build, no fittings to lose and no allen key.
• Weight: approximately 5.4 kilograms
• Tested to EN 12520 for domestic use at 110kg
• Cane webbing: replaceable, and we sell the webbing and the spline
• Seat pad: available separately, not included
• Not stackable, the back is curved
• Sold singly, in pairs, fours and sixes at the checkout

What you get

• One cane back dining chair, assembled
• Felt pads and a spare set
• A care card and a short length of matching cane webbing

Care

Dust it with a soft brush rather than a cloth, because a cloth skates over the weave and a brush gets into it. Two or three times a year wipe it over with a barely damp cloth and let it dry away from a radiator. Rattan does not like being dry any more than it likes being wet, so a piece that lives next to a radiator or in a room with the heating on all winter will benefit from a light mist of water once a month, which sounds like an old wives' tale and is the single most useful thing anyone will tell you about it. If a strand lifts, do not pull it. Damp it, press it back and hold it with masking tape overnight.

Where it works

This is the piece people mean by coastal: pale, woven and light enough to move with one hand. It sits happily against white or off white walls and against the greens and warm neutrals that have replaced grey in most houses. In a room with a lot of hard surfaces it does the job that a rug does, which is to take the edge off the echo.