Wood can be used to enhance decor and there are plenty of options too:

There are many options when it comes to using wood for the interiors of your home. And why not go for them? After all, a home which uses a lot of wood, and tastefully at that, appears very warm and classy. Of course, this material requires special care and high maintenance and, moreover, extra protection against fire-hazards. But the stylish look is worth it.

From the expensive and upmarket teakwood, rosewood, oak, chestnut, pinewood, even cherry-tree wood, to the more affordable rubberwood, cane and bamboo, there is a vast range of options. Teakwood doors and windows, and rosewood or pinewood furniture are quite common in most homes.

Most Indians actually use wood for front-doors and other doors within the home. And among the traditional homes, the elaborately carved, temple-style ones are quite popular. However modern designs are also available for wood doors and you can choose one depending on the overall look of the home that is behind that door. If you want a more unique design, instead of buying such matching doors readymade, you can commission one which matches with the architectural style or the interior decor of the home. For eg, if you want a different or colonial-style look, use door panels which are cut out from old cupboards and replaced with fretwork for a striking look.

Homemaker Raji Singam who has plenty of teak and rosewood in her home - from cupboards to mirror frames, side tables, cabinets, chests and other accessories says: "Wood has a special appeal all its own. It looks warm and stylish and I prefer it over the look of leather, for eg., which looks very sterile." Wood combined with brass ie embellished with brass, looks very classy and Raji has cupboards and mirror frames which use this combination. The rich, dark colour of the wood contrasts beautifully with the gold colour of the brass and thus each material enhances the other.

Central and side-tables besides room-dividers, beds, chairs, tables and desktop accessories in wood are another way to bring this material into the home. Though wood for windows is common, why not acquire some unusually designed ones, especially ones that match with your doors? There are plenty of options available in readymade ones and if you want customised solutions there are plenty of creative designers around.

Satish Hegde, software consultant, who wanted a colonial style shutters, got frames from planed wood and then had fretwork panels fixed on to them using a good adhesive. He also purchased the elaborately carved room-dividers that are such a famous product of Kashmiri craftsmen. Together with some antique wooden tables, chairs and chests picked up from some old homes in Kerala which were disposing of them, he has managed to create quite an interesting wooden theme for his sprawling home.

In fact, if you are the type who loves the antique look, then look out for sales - either public or private, of old furniture, and doors and windows by people who are either selling their ancestral stuff for money, or simply because they are breaking down their old home and building it anew.

Though there is a great deal of modern design and material in beds, the traditional wooden four-poster bed has an enduring appeal and some of them come with floral-design tiles that was common in olden days. Wooden chests complete with brass or copper embellishments also add an old world charm to interiors.

And if you feel you can't make the effort to acquire antiques, there are plenty of stores which retail antique looking furniture and also many friendly neighbourhood carpenters who are familiar with such styles and who will make such products for you once you clearly specify your needs to them.

Wooden flooring is more expensive and time-consuming to add to the home, but looks very warm and classy. Actually, lots of homes also use wood for staircases and you can check with your architect or designers about what wood works best in your kind of home, given the climate that the city has and the area in which your house is located.

Finally, if you feel the above options are expensive, then go for the highly popular rubberwood, or laminates with woodgrain finish or bamboo and cane. There is a great deal of variety in design in furniture, and accessories including lampshades and decor objects available in cane and bamboo nowadays.

By Aruna Chandaraju

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