Two Seat Woven Bench in Natural Rattan

A bench for the end of a bed or a hallway, at 1200mm, which is long enough for two people to put shoes on at the same time.

Every piece here is woven by hand, which is not a marketing line but a description of the only way it can be done. Rattan cannot be machine woven around a curve, so a chair back is somebody sitting with a former and a bundle of soaked cane for most of a day. The consequence is that no two pieces are identical, that the binding at the joints varies slightly, and that a weave that is perfectly regular is usually a sign of extruded plastic rather than good workmanship.

Specification

• Dimensions: 1200 by 400 by 450mm high
• Seat or working height: seat height as the product name says
• Frame: steam bent rattan or a hardwood frame with a woven seat
• Weave: close woven seat, which spreads the load and is why it does not sag
• 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 200kg
• 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 12.4 kilograms
• Feet: felt padded, and spare pads in the box
• Seat: close woven, no cushion needed and none supplied
• Sold singly, and in pairs at the checkout
• Not stackable

What you get

• One two seat woven bench, assembled
• Felt pads and a spare set
• A care card

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.