Home improvement

The new year has silently begun, and brought rather cold weather (11-15 °C max.), so our sailing activities are suspended for the time being. More time at home gives room for some incremental improvements in our comfort of living.
I had played with the idea for some time to hang some flat cushions on the wall behind our low bamboo dining table, to make it more comfortable to lean back against the wall. The idea was to mount a bamboo stick on the wall and hang the cushions from it. We had found some nice cushion sleeves in my friend A Wen's little shop "The Olive Tree" here in Zeng Zuo An, and I stuffed them with squares of foam, cut to the right size. To attach the cushions to the bamboo rods, I used a rather rough type of rope which I found in nearby Shangli. I made an improvised needle from a piece of iron wire, and used it to pull pieces of rope through the fabric, which I later tied around the bamboo.

A second bamboo stick is suspended from the cushions at the bottom, to help straighten them out by its weight. I had sawed off the topmost bamboo stick leaving a few centimeters of hollow material at both ends, allowing for a couple of hidden screws fixing it to the wall. The bottom rod was cut off just outside the section dividers, effectively closing it on both sides. I had selected the bamboo to match the sections to what I needed. The top rod having a slightly bigger diameter, and shorter sections (11 sections plus a few centimeters on both ends), while the bottom rod has just nine sections, at an equal total length of 2m. The bottom stick has grown faster, I guess.
The whole assembly looks quite rural in style, and fits perfectly in our "I love bamboo!" interior, including the bamboo hat lamp I had constructed earlier, the little bamboo stools and circular floor mats made of another natural fiber with buckwheat stuffing. Not to mention the hammock hooks I mounted for comfy indoor swinging. On top of that, we also bought some plants to brighten up the place with some living things.