Beyond just cabinetry

Words by Jamie Crocker

Transforming reclaimed materials into customisable luxury surfaces for contemporary interiors – Stratum Marquetry creates its own path.

Dan and Ravi have spent the past few years perfecting something most people associate with Victorian sewing boxes and National Trust properties. Marquetry, that delicate art of inlaid wood veneer, has been reimagined by this Cornwall-based duo into a robust, contemporary surface treatment that bears little resemblance to its historical predecessor. Where traditional marquetry involves painstakingly glueing hundreds of individual pieces of fragile veneer to form decorative patterns or designs, Stratum Marquetry has developed a process that produces something far more durable and infinitely more versatile.

The difference lies in their approach. Rather than working with thin veneers vulnerable to scratching and wear, they create deep composite surfaces where materials are bonded throughout the structure. The result is a surface that can withstand daily use in flooring, worktops, and high-traffic commercial environments whilst maintaining its visual impact.

Their recent commission for the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter demonstrates how this modern iteration of an ancient craft can integrate into contemporary spaces. The museum required welcome units and a mobile fundraising pod, and shortlisted three businesses through the Craft Council. When asked why they should be chosen over competitors with more extensive institutional portfolios, Dan’s response was straightforward: they had something unique to offer. The museum’s technical team was particularly interested in sustainability, so Stratum Marquetry proposed incorporating materials from the museum’s own stores – oak and mahogany from decommissioned exhibition units, clear acrylic from temporary Covid-era installations – into the marquetry patterns themselves.

This approach to material sourcing defines their practice. Every piece of marquetry is made from reclaimed or recycled materials In one of the corners of their workshop, triangular offcuts of birch plywood, from a local workshop that supplies local stores, scraps with no commercial value to the original manufacturer, lay ready for repurposing. “That pile up there represents a behaviour change around material value,” says Ravi, gesturing to stacks of triangular offcuts awaiting transformation. It’s a pointed observation about an industry where waste has long been accepted as inevitable.

Whilst they acknowledge that mixing different materials creates a product that cannot be conventionally recycled, they operate a take-back scheme. Any surface that becomes damaged or unwanted can be returned, reprocessed into smaller fragments, and cast into new composite panels. “Put it in the post and you can be rest assured it’s saved. It might be saved for a long time before it turns into something else, but it’s not in the bin.”

The technical process remains closely guarded, but its advantages are evident. Where traditional marquetry requires clamping procedures, their method produces a surface in which each element is bonded throughout its depth before assembly. Different materials within the same surface, some harder than oak, some softer, create a composite that distributes strength rather than concentrating it in certain areas.

Helen, the project manager at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, raised questions about durability during their initial Zoom interview. Dan reassured her by explaining that the same surface specification is used in their flooring. The finish applied to any piece is suitable for its environment – a hard barrier for high-use areas, with carefully considered edge treatments; nothing is left unprotected. When she revisited the point during an on-site visit, he emphasised that, unlike veneer marquetry, where delicacy is inherent, their work is embedded deeply within the structure. The museum’s benches and reception areas would endure no more stress than a domestic kitchen worktop and considerably less than a commercial floor.

Pattern possibilities are genuinely limitless. Working with a brand’s colour palette or incorporating specific materials from a client’s own waste stream allows for personalisation that extends far beyond choosing between oak and walnut. One potential project involves a conference table for a sunglasses manufacturer, incorporating all the plastic offcuts generated during frame production. It’s precisely the kind of commission that appeals to them, a functional piece of furniture that tells a material story whilst serving a practical purpose.

Their website now frames the business not as furniture makers who do marquetry, but as specialists in modern marquetry who are also master furniture builders. The distinction matters. Someone searching for a bespoke kitchen will find hundreds of capable makers. Someone searching for a way to incorporate reclaimed materials into a customised surface treatment will find considerably fewer options, if any. “This is where we come in,” says Ravi. “We’re not closing the loop in the traditional sense, but we are creating a loop that keeps material in use.”

The shift towards commercial and institutional clients represents a deliberate strategy. Private residential work continues, but projects like the Royal Albert Memorial Museum offer visibility that domestic kitchens cannot match. Two hundred thousand visitors annually will encounter those welcome units, each one featuring marquetry made from the museum’s own decommissioned materials. The form will be functional rather than ostentatious. Dan envisions a corner accent, as though someone has spilt paint down one side, with a small plaque explaining the material provenance and process. It provides personality without overwhelming the furniture’s primary purpose.

For those seeking something considered, something that makes a statement about craft and environmental responsibility, Stratum Marquetry offers an approach that the more commercial furniture makers cannot replicate. The market for this level of customisation exists among people who recognise that the objects in their homes and workplaces can embody values as well as function. The Royal Albert Memorial Museum project will be particularly valuable as a case study in institutional collaboration, showing how a cultural organisation can integrate sustainability into its physical infrastructure whilst supporting regional craft businesses. It’s the kind of work that generates further opportunities through visibility alone.

The surfaces they produce occupy an unusual position in the contemporary design landscape. Too robust to be dismissed as decorative, too distinctive to be merely functional, they represent a synthesis of environmental responsibility and visual impact that conventional furniture making struggles to achieve. Someone purchasing engineered oak flooring through Stratum Marquetry receives the same technical product they would from any supplier, installed in the same manner, finished to the same standard. But that floor contains an element of personalisation and material rescue that transforms it from a specification choice into something with genuine narrative value. The narrative matters increasingly to both private clients and commercial organisations. Being able to say that a conference table incorporates waste from the company’s own production line, or that a museum’s visitor facilities use materials from its own stores, adds meaning that extends beyond the object’s immediate function.

Years of development have given Dan and Ravi confidence in their process. They have never seen a piece blow itself apart through expansion and contraction, never had material delaminate under normal use. The technical challenges have been resolved through iteration and observation rather than theoretical calculation. “It’s very much a doing process,” says Ravi. They keep a logbook documenting research and development, partly for practical reference, partly to track their progression from experimental beginnings to established technique.

What emerges from conversation with them is not evangelism about sustainability or craft, but practical consideration of how materials move through economic systems and where intervention creates value. They have identified a gap between waste generation and waste disposal, and positioned themselves to capture materials at that point. Their marquetry combines beauty and purpose, achieving the perfect balance, especially when its environmental credentials are considered. 

The process scales from accent details on furniture to entire floors without compromising either durability or customisation. That versatility, combined with their commitment to material rescue and their mastery of a technique, positions them as specialists in a category they are actively defining.

  stratummarquetry.co.uk