Thrifters Be Warned: Overlooking This Vintage Furniture Find Will Haunt You

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There are plenty of vintage furniture finds out there that will make thrifters feel like they just robbed the place. Yet sometimes, you don't take the piece home. You pass on it because you don't have room in your car, or you're running behind that day. Whatever the reason, if you don't immediately snap up things made from scorched bamboo, your choice to overlook it will haunt you ... likely forever. "These pieces are beautiful, functional, versatile, and have the kind of patina that just can't be replicated in a newer item," vintage store owner Laney Oaks told Martha Stewart. "They are also surprisingly sturdy for their age."

In addition to it effortlessly adding a touch of vintage charm to a space, another reason to never pass up scorched bamboo is because it's just so hard to come across! Even Oaks admitted that she's only been able to acquire two of them in all her years of business. And she was quick to keep them for herself due to the novelty. "Both are still in my personal collection," she said. "The cost to replace one today from Chairish or a similar site would be, in some cases, five times what I paid for it!" 

Scorched bamboo can be valuable, with some pieces going for thousands of dollars. So whether you are looking to make a flip (hold onto it for a while even if you do!) or add value to your own home, never pass up scorched bamboo! 

While you will typically find scorched bamboo pieces in shops by sellers who know exactly what they're sitting on, you might get lucky. For instance, this may happen when shopping at an estate sale, or a nearby thrift store when the loved ones have recently cleared someone's home. Without a trained eye, it's easy to part with gorgeous, valuable pieces like this in a rush to be finished with the chore. This is why you always need to keep an eye out while second-hand shopping, as you never know what you might be charmed enough to come across. And you don't need an in-depth bamboo buyer's guide to recognize it, either. 

Bamboo furniture is made from an extremely strong type of grass. Its signature tub-shaped pieces are typically hollow, making the furniture very lightweight and portable. But that doesn't mean it's not sturdy, either. It's actually much stronger than wood, in addition to being quite flexible, too. So it won't break easily. You'll be able to tell that a piece is scorched bamboo, instead of just regular, by its unique pattern. The black swirls that dance across the brown exterior of this furniture are burn marks, hence the name. Some have even described the pattern as tortoiseshell because of its similarity to the popular pattern. These pieces typically have a lacquered appearance to seal off the wood. In some instances, the charred bits can be larger, making the wooden blotches that do show through seem almost white.