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Bamboo Hardwoods
Bamboo Hardwoods can provide a kitchen full of the bamboo, from the floors to the cabinets. Bamboo creates a beautiful edge without needing to edgeband the parts, Doug Lewis, owner of Bamboo Hardwoods, says.
When Doug Lewis started a bamboo nursery with his mother, "going green" wasn't the buzzword it is today. However, there were a lot of people in his hometown of Seattle upset about the way old growth timber was being handled. Lewis saw an opportunity and jumped on it.
"I thought bamboo was a way of providing a solution because obviously we need beautiful wood," he says.
In 1992 Lewis decided to expand the business and opened a laminated bamboo factory, Bamboo Hardwoods, in Vietnam. "Still one of my top interests is the growing aspect of the industry, but at the time there was no market or product," he says.
Coming to America
Originally, in 1992 and for a long time, Bamboo Hardwoods was based only in Vietnam and sold bamboo furniture to importers. Today, it is a U.S. company manufacturing in Seattle as well as importing a number of items from Asia, Lewis, president of Bamboo Hardwoods, says. Lewis incorporated the U.S. company as Bamboo Hardwoods in 1995 after opening a small warehouse in Seattle.
The switch has shifted the company a lot.
"Obviously, in America we can't build the same way we do in Vietnam," Lewis says. "Bamboo Hardwoods Vietnam produces beautiful prefabricated houses. We've done over 100 houses, it might be hundreds, mostly in Hawaii. They are beautiful high-end homes with a lot of bamboo that is like artwork. If you look at the ceiling, the poles and such are really beautiful. In Seattle, we don't work with bamboo poles; we work with plywood and CNC routers."
