Cane Fronted Bar Cabinet with Fold Out Doors in Black Stained Rattan

The doors fold right back against the sides rather than sticking out into the room, which is the difference between a cabinet you leave open at a party and one you do 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: 1000 by 480 by 1300mm high
• Seat or working height: mixing shelf at 720mm
• Frame: solid timber carcass and turned legs
• Weave: hand woven cane webbing in the doors
• Finish: rattan stained through rather than painted on, so a scuff shows dark cane underneath instead of pale cane through black paint
• Load rating: 25kg per shelf, 15kg per trolley tier
• 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 with the legs off, which is four bolts and about ten minutes. The spanner is in the box and the bolts are threaded into steel inserts rather than into the timber, so they can come off again for a move.
• Weight: approximately 62.0 kilograms
• Bottle capacity: about 20 standing and 6 laid down
• Glass storage: a stemware rack under the top shelf
• Mirrored back panel
• Interior light: not fitted, and there is a cable notch if you want to add one
• Felt pads and levelling glides fitted

What you get

• One cane fronted bar cabinet with fold out doors
• Shelves and a stemware rack
• Turned legs and fittings
• Felt pads and a spare set
• A spanner, a care card and a piece 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

The boho end of the range, which mostly means texture. A woven piece next to a plain one reads as considered and three woven pieces in a row read as a garden centre, so the rule we give people is one large woven piece per wall and as many small ones as you like. Works particularly well against a dark wall, where the light catches the weave and the piece stops disappearing.