Custom-Made Marquetry Parquet: From Project Brief to Quotation

Custom-made marquetry parquet is produced from a project brief rather than from a stock list. The architect defines the space, the pattern, the wood and the module size, and the manufacturer works back from those four decisions to a sample, an approval and a quotation.

This article sets out that sequence for architects and interior designers whose project is not covered by a standard collection, and for the distributors and contractors who carry the specification forward. Marquetry parquet is a parquet flooring in which the decorative pattern is inlaid from cut and shaped wood pieces rather than printed or stained, so each module exists as a drawing before it exists as a floor. Almost every variable in that drawing can be changed for a project. That is why custom work is possible at all, and it is also why the process is front-loaded: most of the decisions that matter are taken before any wood is cut. If you are still establishing what the category covers, what marquetry parquet flooring is sets out the basics.

What made to order actually means here

Made to order means that at least one of four variables is set by the project instead of by the catalogue: pattern geometry, module size, wood species, or surface finish. A floor can be custom in one of those respects and entirely standard in the other three.

The distinction is practical rather than academic. A project that keeps a catalogue pattern but changes the species is a different piece of work from one that redraws the geometry to suit a room. Both are made to order, but they involve different amounts of drawing, sampling and approval. Saying which one you are asking for saves a round of correspondence at the start.

At Akarsu Parquetry, pattern development, wood selection, precision cutting and surface treatment are carried out in the Istanbul workshop, and combinations of size, pattern and wood beyond the collection are assessed on a made-to-order basis. The collection itself, ten patterns in thirty-seven colour and surface variants, is the reference point that a custom brief departs from.

Step one: the project brief

The first conversation is about the space, not the product. A manufacturer needs to understand the room, the setting-out intention, the light and the adjoining materials before commenting usefully on a custom pattern.

What is worth preparing before that conversation:

• Room dimensions and plan shape, with the setting-out intention marked: centre line or axis, borders, thresholds, door swings.

• Whether the marquetry runs as a field pattern across the whole floor or sits as a feature panel within a plainer floor.

• Natural and artificial light: direction, intensity and colour temperature.

• Adjoining materials that the wood tones have to sit against, such as stone, metal trims, joinery and wall finishes.

• The character of the interior. A hotel lobby, a villa reception room and a retail floor pull the same pattern in different directions, because viewing distance and traffic differ.

• Constraints set by the building rather than the design, such as substrate type, existing levels or heating. These are resolved with the installer and the manufacturer's own installation instructions.

A brief with these six items lets the manufacturer answer a design question. A brief with only a square-metre figure produces only a general reply.

Step two: pattern and scale

Pattern and scale come before wood, because scale controls how the floor reads in the room. A large mosaic module in a small room reads as a fragment of a pattern. A small module in a large hall reads as texture rather than geometry.

The collection gives a usable scale reference, because module dimensions are published and directly comparable.

Perge at 600×92 mm produces a directional, linear floor. Kapadokya at 600×600 mm produces a slow, large-figured field. The smaller mosaics sit between those two ends. If your brief is really about rhythm and direction rather than a bespoke geometry, the comparison of herringbone, chevron and geometric mosaic patterns may resolve it without custom work.

When the geometry itself is custom, ask one question early: how does the pattern redraw at the size you want? Enlarging a mosaic module is not the same as scaling an image, because the number of elements, the proportion of each piece and the way the module repeats all shift. A manufacturer who answers that with a drawing is easier to work with than one who answers with a yes.

Step three: wood species and surface finish

Species and finish decide whether the pattern stays legible. Marquetry depends on contrast between adjacent pieces, so the useful instruction is not simply "walnut" but "this much contrast between the figure and the ground".

Akarsu Parquetry works with oak, walnut, teak and birch, and with brushed, smoked, metallic-effect and plain surfaces. Those two lists multiply. The same pattern in brushed oak and in smoked walnut are visually different floors, and the difference is larger than a colour swatch suggests.

Light is part of this decision. In a room with strong direct sunlight, a moderate contrast often holds a pattern better than the strongest available contrast, because bright light flattens fine detail. In lower, more even light the opposite is usually true. This is a judgement to make against a physical sample in the project's own light rather than on a screen.

Step four: module size, thickness and setting out

Module size is where the design meets the floor plan. A custom size is worth requesting when a room dimension, a border or a threshold makes the standard module fall awkwardly, not simply because a different number reads better on a drawing.

Across the collection the total thickness is 15 mm. Thickness is rarely the variable an architect wants to change, but it belongs in the brief because it governs the transition to adjoining floor finishes and door thresholds. Fix the level detail early and the rest of the setting out follows from it.

Ask the manufacturer to confirm in writing how a custom module will be set out: where the pattern starts, how it terminates at walls, and how borders or perimeter boards are handled. Setting out is the part of a marquetry floor most often assumed and least often drawn.

Step five: the sample and its approval

The sample is the approval instrument. Everything agreed on drawings becomes verifiable once a physical piece is in the room.

Ask what the sample represents. A sample can show the species combination, the surface finish, the pattern geometry, or all three together, and the answer changes how you read it. A finish sample says nothing about how the geometry repeats. A geometry sample in the wrong species says nothing about contrast. State in the brief which question the sample has to answer.

Review it in the project's own light, next to the actual adjoining materials, at the distance people will really use. A marquetry pattern seen at arm's length on a desk is a different object from the same pattern seen from standing height across a lobby. Keep the approved sample afterwards, because it is the reference both sides return to if a later batch is ever questioned.

Step six: quotation and order confirmation

Pricing for marquetry parquet is quotation-based, so a quotation is only as precise as the specification behind it. Sales at Akarsu Parquetry work on a quotation basis. There is no published list, because pattern, size, species and finish each change the work involved.

A request that carries pattern, module size, species, finish and area is comparable across suppliers. A request that says "custom marquetry, roughly this many square metres" is not. If you are gathering competitive quotations for a project, fixing the specification first is the single change that makes the comparison meaningful. Evaluating the supplier behind the quotation is a separate exercise, and the questions to ask a marquetry parquet manufacturer covers that side of the decision.

Can marquetry parquet be made in a custom size?

Yes, custom module sizes are assessed as made-to-order work. The important point is that a marquetry module is a drawing rather than a scalable image: changing the size changes the number and proportion of the inlaid pieces, so the pattern is redrawn rather than stretched. Ask the manufacturer for the redrawn geometry and a sample before approval. Akarsu Parquetry assesses size, pattern and wood combinations beyond the collection on a made-to-order basis.

The process at a glance

When the standard collection is the better answer

Custom work is not automatically the stronger choice. If the brief is about visual character rather than dimension, a collection pattern in the right species and finish usually reaches the same result with fewer approval steps, because the drawing is already resolved.

Made-to-order production earns its place when the geometry has to respond to the building: an unusual room proportion, a pattern that must align with a structural grid, a feature panel with a defined boundary, or a species combination that has to match specified joinery. Those are dimensional and material problems, and they are the ones a custom process solves well.

From brief to quotation

The sequence is short enough to hold in mind: brief, pattern and scale, species and finish, module size, sample, quotation, order. Each step narrows the specification. Skipping one does not save effort, it moves the effort to the sample stage, where a change costs more attention than it would have cost on the drawing.

The practical next step depends on where your project stands. If an existing pattern is close to what the interior needs, start from the pattern collection and set each module size against your room dimensions. If the geometry has to be developed for the space, send the project details with a quotation request: plan, intended pattern, species direction, finish and area are enough to open a serious technical conversation. Distributors and dealers who want to offer made-to-order marquetry parquet in their own market can begin with the dealer application.