The Woods We Build With: Rubberwood, Plywood and Beech

Every piece we make starts as timber, and the wood it starts as shapes how it feels, how it wears and how long it lasts in a busy home. Our furniture is built mainly from three woods, each picked for what it does best: solid rubberwood, plywood and beech. This guide walks through what sets the three apart, where we use each one and why, how they hold up to years of handling, and how to think about the choice when the same piece is offered in more than one build.

In This Article:

• Why the Wood Matters in Kids' Furniture
• Rubberwood: The Everyday Hardwood
• Plywood: Light, Strong and Stable
• Beech: The Hardest-Wearing Wood
• Plywood or Solid: Two Builds of the Same Tower
• Finish and Everyday Care
• Frequently Asked Questions

Why the Wood Matters in Kids' Furniture

Furniture for young children lives a harder life than most. It gets climbed on, leaned against, dragged an inch to the left, drawn on and spilled on, often several times a day. The wood a piece is made from decides how it stands up to all of that: how sturdy it feels under a child's weight, how smooth the surface stays, how heavy it is to move, and how well it ages instead of loosening or splitting.

Three qualities do most of the deciding. The first is hardness and density, which is what lets a frame take weight and shrug off knocks. The second is stability, meaning how well a piece keeps its shape as the air turns damp or dry across the seasons rather than warping or cracking. The third is simply weight, which matters on anything a child is meant to push, carry or reposition on their own.

No single wood wins on all three at once, which is why we use three. A dense hardwood makes the best load-bearing frame; an engineered panel stays the truest and travels the lightest; the hardest hardwood holds a part rigid where it must not give. Knowing which is which makes it easier to see why a given piece is built the way it is, and to pick the version that suits your home.

Rubberwood: The Everyday Hardwood

Rubberwood is the wood you will meet most often across our range, and for good reason. It is a dense hardwood with a pale, warm honey tone and a tight, close grain that sands to a smooth surface and takes a clear finish cleanly. It is hard enough to be leaned on, climbed and adjusted for years without feeling flimsy, which is exactly what an everyday piece of kids furniture has to do.

It also carries a quiet sustainability story. The rubber tree spends the first stretch of its life grown for the latex it is tapped for; only once those tapping years are over is the timber harvested and put to a second working life as furniture, rather than the tree being cleared and wasted. So a rubberwood chair starts from a tree that has already earned its keep once.

This is the wood we reach for on solid, load-bearing pieces that adjust and get daily use. The LOLA learning tower is built from 18 mm solid rubberwood and rated to 100 kg; the KAYA table and chair set, the NALA study chair and the AURORA dining chair are solid rubberwood too, as is the BINDI revolving bookcase. Because it is solid timber through and through, an edge that gets knocked shows bare wood you can sand back, not a chipped skin over something else.

 

Plywood: Light, Strong and Stable

Plywood is an engineered wood, and its strength comes from how it is built. Thin layers of timber, called plies, are glued together with the grain of each layer crossing the one below. That cross-lamination is the whole trick: it makes a panel far stronger for its weight than a single board of the same thickness, and far less likely to warp, cup or split as humidity rises and falls through the year.

The birch plywood we use has a smooth face and a clean, layered edge, and it keeps a flat panel genuinely flat over time. Its best qualities are lightness and stability, so it earns its place on pieces meant to be moved and on wide panels that need to stay true.

You can see this in the ISLA doll pram walker, built from birch plywood so a toddler can push and steer it without wrestling a dead weight. The plywood build of the JALA learning tower uses a birch plywood frame that keeps the tower lighter to lift and shift around the kitchen while still holding its 100 kg rating. Plywood also does the flat-panel job on platforms and boards that have to stay straight under daily use, which is where its stability matters most.

Beech: The Hardest-Wearing Wood

Beech is the hardest of the three. It is a pale, dense hardwood with a very tight, even grain, harder than rubberwood and with a more uniform look. That density lets it hold a shape rigidly and take steady pressure without flexing, so we bring it in where a part simply must not give.

The clearest example is the ELI bed rail, made from solid beechwood. A bed rail has to stay firm as a sleeping child rolls against it night after night, year after year, without bowing or working loose, and beech is the wood that holds that line. It comes in 90 cm and 120 cm lengths, stands 500 mm high and is finished in a clear water-based varnish that wipes clean.

Beech is a little heavier than rubberwood, which is the trade for the extra hardness, and its fine even grain gives a clean, uniform surface once finished. It is the wood we choose for the job that asks for the most rigidity rather than the one that gets moved around, which is why you meet it on a fixed safety part rather than a piece a child carries.

Plywood or Solid: Two Builds of the Same Tower

A well-built piece is rarely a single wood, because different parts ask for different things. A frame that must bear a child's weight wants a dense solid hardwood; a wide platform that must stay flat wants an engineered panel that will not cup. Pairing the two lets each wood do the job it is best at.

The JALA learning tower is where that choice is put in your hands directly, because it comes in two builds. The plywood build uses a birch plywood frame that is lighter to lift, which suits a kitchen where the tower gets moved in and out of the way often. The solid-wood build swaps that for the heft and feel of solid timber, which suits a tower that lives in one fixed spot. Both are rated to the same 100 kg, so the choice is about weight and feel, not strength.

Neither build is a downgrade on the other. Reading the wood a piece is made from, and the build it comes in, tells you how it will behave day to day, so you can match it to how your home actually uses it. A tower that stays put can take the solid version; one that shuttles around the kitchen is easier in plywood.

Finish and Everyday Care

The finish matters as much as the wood underneath. Most of our pieces wear a water-based varnish that seals the surface and wipes clean, which is what you want on furniture that meets porridge, paint and sticky fingers daily. It keeps the timber easy to look after without hiding the grain.

Caring for any of the three is much the same and takes very little. Wipe the surface with a damp, not soaking, cloth and dry it off, and skip harsh sprays that can dull the finish over time. Deal with spills before they sit, since even a sealed surface does better without a puddle left on it.

Two habits keep solid-wood pieces in particular looking right. Keep them out of long spells of direct sun or damp, because any real timber moves a little with big swings in humidity, and give the fixings on adjustable pieces an occasional check and a snug turn, since anything raised and lowered over the years will loosen a touch with use. A few minutes now and then is all it takes for a wooden piece to outlast the childhood it was bought for.

Frequently Asked Questions

What wood is your kids furniture made from?

We build mainly with three woods, each for what it does best. Solid rubberwood is the everyday hardwood behind most of our tables, chairs and learning towers; plywood is used where light weight and a stable panel matter, such as the ISLA doll pram and the plywood build of the JALA tower; and solid beechwood is the hardest of the three, used on the ELI bed rail where a part has to stay rigid.

Is the plywood or the solid-wood learning tower better?

Neither is better; they suit different homes. The plywood build uses a birch plywood frame that is lighter to lift, which is easier in a kitchen where the tower gets moved often. The solid-wood build gives the heft and feel of solid timber and suits a tower that stays in one spot. Both are rated to the same 100 kg, so the difference is weight and feel, not strength.

Is plywood as strong as solid wood?

For the jobs we use it on, yes. Because its layers are glued with the grain crossing at each ply, plywood is very strong for its weight and more stable against warping than a single board. We use it where light weight and a true flat panel matter, and solid hardwood where a load-bearing frame does, so each part gets the wood that fits it.

How do I care for wooden kids furniture?

Wipe it with a damp, not soaking, cloth and dry it off, and avoid harsh sprays that can dull the finish. Deal with spills before they sit, keep solid-wood pieces out of long spells of direct sun or damp, and give the fixings on adjustable pieces an occasional check and a snug turn. That is enough to keep any of the three looking right for years.

Want to see which wood suits your home? Browse the kids tables and chairs range and check the material on each piece to match the wood to the way you will use it.