Rattan vs Wicker vs Cane: What's the Difference?

Three words used for the same chair, and they do not mean the same thing.

Rattan is a material. Wicker is a weave. Cane is a strip cut from the skin of rattan. A chair can be all three at once: a rattan frame, wicker work, a caned seat. That is why the words get mixed up.

Rattan is a climbing palm that grows in tropical forests. Its stem is solid, flexible once steamed, and strong enough to build a frame. Wicker is not a plant at all: it is the technique of weaving flexible strands, whatever they are made of. Cane is the glossy outer skin of the rattan stem, cut into thin strips and woven into the seat and back.

Rattan: The Material

Rattan is a climbing palm from the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. Unlike bamboo, its stem is solid all the way through. Steamed, it bends; cooled, it holds its shape. That is what makes it the frame material of the French bistro chair: a continuous curve from the back to the legs, with no joint to break.

A rattan stem is also split. The outer skin becomes cane; the core becomes reed. One plant, several materials, which is the first reason the vocabulary slips.

Wicker: The Weave, Not a Plant

In English, wicker names a way of working, not a thing that grows. Flexible strands are passed over and under one another to form a surface or a basket. Those strands can be rattan, willow, reed, paper cord or synthetic fiber.

So "a wicker chair" says how the chair was made, not what it is made of. A rattan chair can be wicker work; a willow basket is wicker too.

Cane: The Skin of the Rattan

Cane is the glossy outer layer of the rattan stem, cut into even strips. It is the material of caning — the woven panel of a seat or a back.

At Maison Louis Drucker, the seat and back are woven strand by strand by hand, on a rattan frame. Depending on the pattern, one seat takes 3 to 30 hours of work. The weave can be natural cane or colored synthetic fiber: glossy Rilsan® in around thirty colors, satin Raucord® in some twenty tones, dyed in the mass so the color runs through the strand.

And Willow?

Willow is a different plant: a thin, hollow, flexible rod, mostly woven into baskets. A few light chairs are made of it, but it does not have the strength of rattan for a frame in daily use. In French the word osier covers willow, and vannerie covers basketry as a craft — which adds another layer of confusion when texts are translated word for word.

And Bamboo?

Bamboo is a grass, and its stem is hollow. It is rigid: it splits rather than bends, so it cannot be steamed into the curve of a bistro chair. A bamboo chair is built from straight sections assembled together. Rattan and bamboo look alike from a distance; they do not behave alike.

The Four Words Side by Side

What It Changes for a Chair

These are not academic distinctions. They decide how a chair behaves in service.

• The frame carries the weight. A steamed rattan frame absorbs the daily use of a café without a joint giving way.
• The weave carries the comfort. A woven seat ventilates, which is why a bistro chair stays comfortable on a terrace in summer.
• The fiber decides the life outdoors. Natural cane suits interiors; synthetic fiber, dyed in the mass, holds up to rain and sun.
• A woven chair can be repaired. A worn seat is re-woven in the atelier, on the same frame.

At Maison Louis Drucker

Since 1885, the house has built chairs on steamed rattan frames and woven them by hand, strand by strand. More than 72 models, more than 50 weaving patterns, and chairs in service in more than 80 countries. Design and maintenance are handled entirely in France; fabrication takes place in France or in Indonesia, the home of rattan, with the same components everywhere: European fiber, French nailing, Italian varnish.

See the chair collection, the colors, and our guide to rattan dining chairs.

Not Sure Which You Need?

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