Blonde Ambition

/ by Stephanie Burnette and Lina LeGare

Woven and under-stained finishes may have arrived on a wave of early-90s nostalgia, but the current blonde home goods are far from golden and shellacked. Boasting beautiful design and a focus on material quality, making room for a blonde moment in your interiors feels chic more so than throw-back.

In the bedroom, rattan furnishings have stepped front and center with refined offerings from beds to wardrobes. Caned, rush and splint seating really never left the kitchen, but new options, including dining benches, hutches and tabletop goods, feature inset panels of the hand-woven application.

Rugs and statement furniture draw the eye much like adding white to a garden bed; it’s hard to look away from a bright spot in a room. Shop for single luxe items for living spaces; overt texture underfoot can ground a room with warm earthiness, whereas furnishings with clean, linear construction level up in sumptuous materials and soft matte finishes.

Bathrooms are an easy place for a dose of natural fabrications. Replace stalwart white towels with unbleached textiles and soften expanses of tile with woven light fixtures. Greenery lives harmoniously with the biscuit hues of the rattan trend, so plan for your plant babies to live in these spaces too.

Rattan is a Vine

A climbing and trailing vine is responsible for nearly every tiki-related item. Rattan (or manila) is a palm vine that grows abundantly in the tropics of Asia. Its scabbard, a “bark” of sorts, becomes what we think of as cane or caning, and its reed-like innards are the material woven into a repeating pattern that creates wicker. Cut into 13-foot lengths, rattan is sun-dried and straightened by hand.