LAURA MARINO ON BAMBOO FOR THE TELEGRAPH

I’m always looking for more sustainable materials, now more than ever. There’s a pressing need, and bamboo is pretty interesting,” says interior designer Laura Marino of Studio L, whose current projects include a boutique development at the converted Westminster Fire Station.

“Bamboo and cork are probably the two materials we’re going to be seeing used on a larger scale,” Marino says.

She likes it for flooring - not so much in its natural state, where it can have an unwelcome orange tinge, but with paints and darker stains, so the grain looks more uniform: “If you strip it back to being white, it takes paint very well, so you can play with colour. I’m starting to see it in richer reds, or darker greens and blues.”

She’s also planning to install a set of vintage bamboo dining chairs at Westminster Fire Station. She found them at a dealer’s and had them painted up in off-white. It’s a modern update to the laid-back style of the Sixties and Seventies that bamboo is associated with, and which is also having a big revival.

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