DIY Pandan

I have inherited a peculiar habit from my Mom: we glefully rub our bare feet against a variety of textures, from split bamboo floors to high thread count sheets! Now have any of you discovered the immense pleasure from these pandán pillows and ottomans? They are such handy pieces to have around the house, multi-tasking as side tables, step-stools, caddies for trays, but most sensory as an ottoman to prop your tired feet up. In our case, it serves best as an elevated, three-dimensional organic mat to rub our soles and enjoy the smooth, natural and woven texture.

It's no surprise that I have massively frayed them, especially the corners of the cube-shaped one (right), pandan being a natural and biodegradable material. And wait, while we're at this photo, not many people know that the interior is stuffed with even more pandan leaves!

Anyway, a new piece would have the corners looking even with the rest of the sides (below left). So my trusted staff, May got some fresh leaves from our pandán plant, took off the spines on the edges, air-dried them, and cut them to strips and started weaving our still-greenish leaves into the corners (below right).

She'll let the strips dry in the weave to make it more taut and trim off the edges and lock the ends in place. In just a few days, it will look just as it used to be.