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Bamboo Wall Paneling Is Used To Create A Wonderful Warm And Rustic Feel To The Pakchong (Pak Chong) Retirement House In Thailand

The Photo Below Formed The Inspiration For The Hanging Bamboo Mat Decor We Wanted

I hasten to add that the photo below is not of our retirement house we are building in Pakchong (Pak Chong).

The image is borrowed from a Bamboo Mat Ply Panels website and shows the kind of look and feel I wanted to achieve in our house in Thailand. The photo is from the beautiful Wakaya Club Resort in Fiji.

Bamboo Matt on Walls & Underside of Roof

Above, the main characteristics I love about the application of the bamboo mat panels as a wall decor are:-

• The exposed roof rafters
• The darker color dividing lines between the bamboo mat panels that break up the space and create clean lines
• The wall-washer lights
• The clean bamboo mat finish
• The way the bamboo mat panels are correctly finished around the windows

I wonder how close we will come to achieving this kind of ambiance in our own retirement house in Thailand?

Lest’s see how it’s panning out as the house gets decorated with bamboo mat panels under the watchful eye of my wonderful wife, Kanyah, in the photos below.

Bamboo Mat As Purchased

Above, this is one of the bamboo mats bought by Kanyah in a trip to Khampaeng Phet with her nephew, Jalan. (Kanyah sacked Jalan a few weeks ago, after first terminating the first builder’s contract)

You can see that it is very lightweight and has not enough strength so support itself. That’s why our Thai Architect specified that it be fixed to 4mm thick plywood panels to form Bamboo mat panels.

In the photo below you can see the start of the process of gluing the bamboo mat to the plywood panels.

Pasting A Plywood Panel

Above, the brush is used to apply the adhesive, detailed below.

The Glue To Fix The Bamboo Mat

Above, the bamboo mat glue and below a finished bamboo mat panel ready for hanging on the wall.

Bamboo Mat Stuck To The Plywood Wall Panel

The next photo shoes the bamboo mat in close-up.

I’m not so happy with the finish. Looks a bit coarse to me compare to the bamboo mat finish in the photo at the top of the page. Also the colour looks too light and I would have expected it to have been varnished…

O.K. I’m hard to please. After all this Is Thailand!

Close-Up Photo Of Bamboo Mat Wall Lining

Below, the first photo of some bamboo mat actually hanging as wall decor. I must say this does not really give the feel i wanted in the photo at the top of this page.

Quite clearly the finish is not so smooth, there are no dividing lines between the bamboo mat panels and the installation is not flat.

The Bamboo Mat Panel Hanging As Wall Matting

In the photo above, it’s clear that the Bamboo mat wall panels are not tall enough to cover from floor to beam level. I suppose some kind of infill panel will be added but that will look like an afterthought. Clearly the Bamboo mat panel size was not considered before hanging them.

Perhaps this is something the the Thai Architect should have done when producing the construction drawings for the Thai house.

Next another photo of the Bamboo mat wall panels as they are added to to form the Bamboo wall decor.

Bamboo Mat Around The Window

In the photo above of the Bamboo mat installed around a window I notice that the window frame is not visible. No idea why and it should be visible to define the edge of the Bamboo mat wall panel.

Next, we are coming to a real big issue with me.  Not in this photo but in the next one (appears in the next post).

Electrical Wiring Hidden Behaind The Bamboo Mat Wall Paneling

In the photo above you can see that the electrical wiring (in yellow colour) is run through the wooden fram forming the support for the Bamboo mat panels.

That is OK. (Except that the Specification made by our Thai Architect calls for all wires to be run through conduit.) Note for the non-technical person. The phrase “conduit” refers to pipes that are used to carry electrical wires. (you’ll see plenty of those in the next post)

The Next Post Shows The Ugly Way They Have Done The Wiring – A Major Issue That I Had To Raise With Kanyah – And It Caused Quite An Upset

• You’ll see the exact email and marked-up photo that I sent to Kanyah – and that caused such a stir on the job site in Pakchong.
• You’ll read about the big technical mistake that I made when checking the Thai Architect’s drawings  - despite it being one of the things I am passionate about doing in my role as a professional engineer.
• And I’ll fill you in on how the response from the Thais made my blood boil, and
• Why I decided to cool down and let Kanyah just enjoy her moment.

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