Rubberwood has emerged as an effective substitute to traditional wood.
In this age of declining forest resources, the search for aesthetic alternatives to wood for interior designing and making furniture has never been more desirable. More and more interior designers are now favouring substitutes to wood, as consciousness about depletion of forest areas is driving people to options that ensure minimal use of timber.
As the world is waking up to the reality of shortage of timber and to the importance of using alternatives to wood products, various alternatives to wood has gained attention over the years. No doubt, wood still remains the favourite traditional material for making high quality furniture.
Steel, aluminium and plastic furniture that emerged as an alternative to wooden furniture can hardly offer a competition to wooden furniture makers. People still prefer inherent stability and durability of wooden furniture.
The substitutes
However, the days of large wooden doors, stairs, partitions and shelves have long ceased to exist. And search has long been started for substitutes that can offer qualities such as easy workability, durability, dimensional stability and aesthetic appeal that are the hallmarks of the favoured wood species such as teak and rosewood. Zero wood option is still a far cry, though the idea will remain, as the awareness of depleting tropical forests grows stronger. Rubberwood has emerged as an aesthetic alternative to traditional wood. Many interior designers prefer to term rubberwood as wood and not as a wood-substitute. Though the use of rubberwood for household furniture is still to become popular, interior designers tend to prefer the material, especially because of uniform colour comparable to that of white cedar.
Rubberwood offers an alternative to the non-traditional aesthetics of interior designing that has emerged over the last many decades with the massive use of wood-based substitutes such as plywood.
Also available in the market are other wood-based substitutes such as medium density fibre (MDF) boards and pre-laminated particleboards made of agricultural residues and waste wood. MDF boards and particleboards are largely imported from abroad. MDF boards, according to interior designers, can be used to make office furniture, kitchen cabinets, bedroom and dining furniture, doors and panel mouldings. These imported boards are also available in various shapes for the use of ceilings, doors, furniture mouldings, panellings, partitions and windows. While plywood is still a versatile material for interiors, rubberwood, MDF boards and particleboards are ideal for all kinds of woodwork.
