Matyas Architects & Interiors — European hand-scraped oak by Market Timbers across floors, walls, ceilings, and a bespoke curved staircase
Black Rock is the most ambitious home we have ever worked on. A Matyas Architects & Interiors residence of extraordinary craft, built by Jamie Henderson: curved walls, curved ceilings, a bespoke curved staircase — and a single European hand-scraped oak, specified by Market Timbers, carried across every one of those surfaces. Floors, walls, ceilings, treads. One material, holding an entire architecture.
The timber itself is among the most considered European hand-scraped products available. A specification reserved for briefs that can carry it. Every board is individually textured, so no two boards read identically. Laid alongside each other across 300-plus square metres of floor, wall, and ceiling, that per-board character is what gives the interior its tactile depth and its sense of quiet wealth. It's a material that doesn't need to announce itself.
“Exceptional craftsmen with a true eye for detail. Their willingness to workshop often complex stair details has been instrumental in achieving many outstanding outcomes for us.”
Ben Pak Poy, Senior Project Architect — Matyas Architects & Interiors
Installing hand-scraped timber across curved surfaces is a different problem to laying a flat floor. Every board meeting a curved wall or ceiling required individual scribing: tracing the curve and cutting to fit with zero margin for correction on a textured, irreplaceable product. Matyas specified a clean 3mm shadow gap at every transition: floor to wall, wall to ceiling, stair to cladding. A detail that reads as effortless only when every cut is true. Hand-scraped timber does not forgive an under-cut or an over-scribe.
The material envelope continued through every opening. Doors were clad in the same hand-scraped oak as the surrounding walls, with grain and board direction aligned so the floor run reads continuously across the threshold. When the door is closed, the corridor reads as one uninterrupted timber volume. Setting out the wall cladding against the door-leaf geometry, board by board, is the kind of work that only announces itself in its absence.
The staircase was the set piece. A curved, open-tread design with hand-scraped oak treads, risers, and wall cladding; the handrail itself turned in solid oak, shaped for the hand. Every tread scribed individually. Every nosing profile matched across a curved flight where no two step geometries are identical. Where the stair meets the curved wall cladding at each landing, the timber on one plane had to handshake the timber on the other: texture, tone, and grain reading as a single material, with the 3mm shadow gap carried cleanly through every junction.
Substrate work was comprehensive. Curved surfaces and hand-scraped timber are unforgiving of any out-of-tolerance condition beneath; diamond grinding, levelling, and comprehensive moisture testing preceded every surface. Through the build, we worked closely with Jamie Henderson's team and the joinery trades, protecting the floor and wall surfaces through every subsequent stage. The finished project is the result of a seamless collaboration between Matyas Architects & Interiors, Jamie Henderson, Market Timbers, and Mastercraft Flooring. Each held their part of the brief to the same high standard.
Black Rock ran through the same six-stage Mastercraft process every project does, applied to one of the most technically demanding briefs we've held.
Plans reviewed with Matyas and the Market Timbers specification. Scope agreed across floor, walls, ceiling, doors, and staircase. One timber, one contract.
Laser-level survey across every curved surface, moisture-meter readings at every junction, and detail sign-off with the builder on the 3mm shadow gap.
Diamond grinding and levelling on every floor plane. Moisture testing repeated at each stage. Curved surfaces and hand-scraped timber are unforgiving.
Board-by-board scribing to curved walls and ceilings. Staircase treads cut individually. Grain and direction aligned from floor through walls, ceilings, and clad doors.
Whole-envelope deep clean on completion. Protective covering maintained through remaining joinery and trades work, the floor handed over untouched.
Final walkthrough with Matyas, Market Timbers, and Jamie Henderson. Care schedule provided. Seven-year workmanship warranty in place.
One timber, chosen to carry an entire house. Floor, wall, ceiling, stair. Curved and continuous.
Oliver Davis, Founder
