Rattan garden furniture
a unique and traditional choiceEveryone knows rattan. It is a material that is unique, recognisable from afar and you hate it, or you love it. Rattan is a natural material and thus brings nature into your garden. It is, however, a material that requires maintenance and cannot be left outside all year round. DoaBuy explains the characteristics of rattan and rattan PE.
Natural rattan garden furniture
Many people choose rattan in their gardens. It looks beautiful and attractive, and it fits a lot of styles.Real rattan garden furniture is made from the rattan plant, a plant with vine-like stems. This makes it somewhat similar to wicker in appearance, but it is clearly a different kind of material.
Rattan grows in tropical rainforests and is generally a climbing plant. The thickness of a stem of rattan varies from 3 millimetres to almost 10 centimetres and a rattan stem can grow up to 200 metres long. So it is not surprising that beautiful (garden) furniture is made from it.
The maintenance of rattan does require a bit more time than plastic garden furniture, for example. It is wise to put natural rattan furniture indoors in autumn. All natural materials can weather and eventually decay. Rattan is strong, but it will stay beautiful much longer if you take good care of it. And that includes spending the winter inside.
Clean twice a year with soapy water and a soft brush. Do not use harsh detergents that, for example, degrease and dry out strongly. If necessary, add some salt to the cleaning water to prevent the rattan of your furniture from drying out too quickly.
If you really want to pamper your rattan garden furniture, give it a coat of wax; this repels moisture and dirt. It will then discolour less quickly due to weathering. You will then probably enjoy your rattan furniture for many years longer.
Rattan PE
As natural rattan is a very popular material, but needs a lot of maintenance, rattan PE was developed. PE stands for polythene. This plastic rattan is also called Poly Rattan or Poly Rattan.Rattan PE is a plastic very similar to rattan in appearance, but not in other properties. The material has really looked at the natural look of rattan, which means that thickness and colour differences have also been included in the plastic version. This gives a lively effect to your garden furniture, making it look much less factory-made and therefore fake.
As PE rattan is a plastic, unlike natural rattan, it can stay outside all year round. It is much less susceptible to weathering, discolouration and wear.