Time was when furniture made of teak or rosewood was a social statement. Your taste, your standing and stretching it a bit, even your personality, perhaps! But in today's eco-conscious world, people are not afraid to be different. Daring. Innovative. Both in the choice of material as well as designs. And if eco-conservation and recycling are part of the game, home-makers are game too!

Rubber wood: This is the new material that goes into the making of a whole new generation of furniture. Essentially made of the bark of the rubber tree after the extraction of the resin, rubber wood has come into vogue thanks to the efforts of a few entrepreneurs who found good use for it. Earlier, the rubber tree, known only for rubber extraction, was termed useless after the extraction as the wood in the tree was known for termites and borers.

Whether you want that touch of class to your decor or whether you are doing a rethink on your furniture budget, rubber wood may be the answer for you. Paul, branch in-charge of XLNT Eco-Furniture which has pioneered this concept, says, "Rubber wood costs 25 per cent lesser than teak/rosewood and 20 per cent higher than ordinary wood." It's then an ideal choice for the `in-between' customers, trying to juggle quality with cost.

Also known as white wood, rubber wood is fast replacing traditional wood used in interior decor. The only hitch in its use too has been removed by the special treatment the wood is put through, to keep termites and borers at bay. The Mangalore-based manufacturers of this kind of furniture procure the raw material from the ATI treatment plant in Kerala, where the rubber wood is chemically treated for the pests. The treatment done, the wood then comes out with a `lifetime guarantee' tag.

Says Paul, ''Rubber wood is slowly catching up in the country, more so in the South. With more and more sky rise apartments dotting the city, space constraint is a major issue. The compact, made-to-order houses, always lack the required space to add furnitures of their choice. Realising this, we have designed furnitures suitable for apartments and small houses.''

Futons, he says, is one such example. A Japanese concept of sofa-cum-bed, Futons come in three sizes and are foldable and comes with a mattress. It is exclusively designed to occupy less space in the apartments. It can be used as a sofa during the day and as a low cot-cum-bed during night.

Justifying the eco-friendly part of the rubber wood, Paul says, it normally takes 60 to 70 years for a teak or rosewood tree to grow into a full-fledged seasoned tree. On the other hand, the rubber tree gives its yield in 7 years to 16 years. After this, the tree is uprooted and new saplings planted. This helps in a great deal of recycling. With deforestation ruled out, rubber plantations are ecologically beneficial.

The idea of furniture in rubber wood was `imported' from abroad – Malaysia, Germany and France, where they use white pine wood for furnitures, which is known for its durability for a very long time. Though similar to rubber wood, pine comes with knots, Paul says.

There are other furniture too available in the market which resemble rubber wood. But they are plain in their looks without the natural grains as seen in rubber wood.

Regarding the durability of the wood, he says, they have been in the market for the last two and a half years, and so far there has never been a single complaint of termites or borers in the furniture. ''The termites should have shown up within a year, we have come through it. I don't think the problem would exist. The raw material comes with a life-time guarantee. In case any piece catches up with termites, the company will replace them.''