Bamboo bonus: Beyond flooring

As you're probably aware, bamboo flooring has gained widespread acceptance as an attractive, durable, and more-sustainable alternative to hardwood.

Most manufacturers grow bamboo on plantations, which helps reduce forest logging. And because bamboo is a fast-growing grass--not wood--it can be harvested in as little as four years.

What you may not realize, however, is that flooring isn't the only use for bamboo.

I recently discovered a very innovative, forward-thinking company called, Teragren Fine Bamboo Flooring, that's based in Washington state.

Teragren manufactures some of the world's most beautiful solid-strip and floating-plank bamboo floors, but that's not all.

The company also offers a line of bamboo panels, veneers, butchblocks and stair parts. The kitchen cabinets shown above are built of 3/4-inch-thick bamboo cross-ply laminated panels, which feature beautiful vertical-grain blond streaks.

The panels come in six colors and a wide variety sizes, ranging from 1/8 inch to 13/16 inch thick, and from 1 foot wide x 6 foot long, to 4 foot wide x 8 foot long. Prices vary widely, but expect to pay about $225 for a 3/4-inch-thick 4x8-foot vertical-grain panel.

Teragren also offers bamboo butcherblock for use as kitchen counters, islands, peninsulas and tabletops.

The table shown at right is made with Teragren's parquet bamboo butcherblock ($22 to $28 per square foot). Bamboo strip and strand butcherblock are also available.

Bamboo butcherblock is 1 1/2 inch thick and comes in two standard sizes: 30 x 96 inches, and 36 x 72 inches. Custom sizes up to 3 inches thick x 4 foot x 8 foot can be special ordered.