Jute, Seagrass or Rattan: How to Choose a Natural Storage Basket
Every woven basket looks more or less the same in a photograph. In your home they behave very differently. The fiber decides how much weight the basket takes, whether it keeps its shape after a year, and how it handles a humid bathroom. Here is what actually separates them.
Jute
Jute is spun from the stalk of the jute plant and then braided, which gives it a soft, matte, slightly fuzzy surface. It is the most forgiving fiber to live with: light enough to carry with one hand when full, soft enough that it will not scuff a painted wall or a wooden floor.
The trade-off is structure. A tall jute basket loaded with heavy books will slump at the rim over time. Jute is also the least happy of the four in damp air, so keep it out of the bathroom.
Best for: throws and cushions in the living room, toys, yarn and craft supplies, anything soft and bulky.
Our Savar basket combines braided jute with a seagrass base, which is a common way to get jute's softness without losing the floor.
Seagrass
Seagrass is harvested from coastal marshes, dried, and woven while still slightly pliable. The result is smoother and a little glossier than jute, with a faint green cast that fades to warm honey over the first year. It is noticeably stronger.
Seagrass also tolerates humidity better than jute or rattan, which is why it shows up in bathrooms and entryways where wet shoes land. It is not waterproof, and standing water will stain it, but a steamy room will not undo it.
Best for: entryway catch-alls, bathroom towel storage, plant baskets with a saucer inside.
Rattan
Rattan is a climbing palm, and unlike jute or seagrass it is used as a rigid cane rather than a spun fiber. That rigidity is the whole point: a rattan basket holds its silhouette whether it is empty or packed, which makes it the only one of the four that reads as furniture rather than as a container.
It is also the fiber to choose when the basket has to do a structural job — a lid that closes, a hamper that stands on its own, a mirror frame that stays round. Our rattan laundry basket uses it for exactly that reason, and the same rigidity is what lets the Bong sunburst mirror hold its shape on the wall.
Best for: laundry hampers, lidded storage, anything that sits in the open and needs to look intentional.
Wild grasses
Beyond the three familiar names there is a whole category of regional grasses woven the way they have been for generations. Milulu grass, harvested in Tanzania, is one of them — stiffer than jute, finer than rattan, and left undyed so the color variation across a single basket is part of the object.
These baskets tend to be squarer and more architectural, which makes them stack and line up on a shelf in a way round baskets never do. Our Iringa baskets are woven this way by women artisans and come in three nesting sizes.
Best for: open shelving, closet systems, anywhere baskets sit side by side and the lines should agree.
Choosing by room
- Living room: jute or a jute-and-seagrass blend. Soft contents, soft fiber.
- Laundry: rattan. It needs to stand up on its own and take a lid.
- Closet: wild grass or a structured seagrass. Square shapes waste less shelf.
- Bathroom: seagrass. It handles the steam.
- Entryway: seagrass or rattan, whichever matches the door hardware.
Making them last
Natural fiber baskets ask for very little. Vacuum the weave with a brush attachment every few weeks so dust does not settle into the braid. Spot clean with a barely damp cloth and let the basket dry completely before you refill it. Keep all four out of direct afternoon sun, which bleaches the fiber unevenly and makes it brittle at the rim.
One more thing worth saying out loud: every handwoven basket varies. Two baskets of the same size from the same workshop will differ slightly in tone and dimension, because a person made both. That is not a defect to check for. It is the reason to buy one.
Browse the full collection of woven storage and living room pieces.