Tongue & Groove has built its reputation with craftsmanship that speaks for itself. Founded in Sydney by Richard Karsay, the brand began with a maker’s question – how do you achieve the warmth and integrity of solid timber with a stability that designers demand? The answer is found in Tongue & Groove’s distinctive three-layered, engineered solid European oak board. It’s an elegant solution born through decades of hands-on installation, refined into a system where each layer of solid oak works to create strength, stability and a luxurious finish.
More than fifteen years on, that founding impulse – to solve a real problem beautifully – still drives the business. For Tongue & Groove craft is not a surface treatment, but rather a complete practice. The floorboards can be used across floors, stairs, walls and ceilings, with generous widths and lengths that allow scale to become part of the design language. It allows oak to be a defining material in the palette, where colour, proportion and tactility can unify a space or accent it with intention.
As the brand has continued to grow over time, it has seen the opening of award-winning showrooms. Through its presence in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Tongue & Groove puts the tactility of its products into the hands of the design industry.
But innovation is where Tongue & Groove continues to set itself apart. Most recently with the introduction of Co.Lab, a programme that sees a highly curated selection of designers create new ranges to expand the notion of what timber flooring can be, and the role that it can play in a home. The collaborative collections experiment with colour, pattern, rhythm and graphic intent, all without sacrificing the material’s integrity. Through these ranges the the floor becomes the foundation of a whole design concept.
Co.Lab launched with a collection by Greg Natale, and it is set to continue with upcoming collaborations from Catherine Martin and Yasmine Ghoniem (YSG Studio), alongside the newly released Raw Edges from Established & Sons. All of these collections are engineered into Tongue & Groove’s three-layer solid oak composition. There is a digital accuracy and analogue sensitivity that underpins the manufacturing, allowing precision to be expressed so the eye reads the intended luxury of the finish.
What distinguishes Tongue & Groove is an insistence that excellence is cumulative, as it has shown through 15 years of consistency. The company’s unwavering commitment to excellence remains, and it’s an ethos that has laid the groundwork across every aspect of the business. And because of this, Tongue & Groove continues to tell the story of timber through proportion, tone and rhythm.
Tongue & Groove
tongueandgroove.com.au
