Timber flooring has long been central to both performance and aesthetics — fundamental to how spaces are experienced, but often resolved within established formats. A new global partnership between Tongue & Groove, Established & Sons and Raw Edges is looking to expand that territory.
Following their earlier collaboration on the Wall to Wall collection — a reworking of traditional parquet — the three have formalised a long-term agreement that will see Tongue & Groove manufacture and distribute all Established & Sons timber flooring collections globally, with Raw Edges leading creative direction.
It’s a straightforward structure, but a deliberate one. Each party brings something distinct: manufacturing and technical expertise from Tongue & Groove, design credibility and global reach from Established & Sons, and a more exploratory, material-driven approach from Raw Edges.
“It’s been my vision for a long time to get on the global stage,” says Tongue & Groove founder Richard Karsay. “The key is making sure all partners are aligned and that they all add value.”
That alignment is already visible in how the partnership has taken shape. What began as a one-off collaboration has evolved into something more embedded — less about individual collections and more about building a framework for ongoing design input.
For Established & Sons, the focus is on extending design thinking into a category that has historically been more constrained. “There is a synergy between the culture at Tongue & Groove and our culture,” says managing director Casper Vissers.
That shared position is underpinned by a broader ambition — to open up flooring as a more active design surface.
Related: A new surface, minus the silica
“Flooring has never given designers the opportunity to express their creativity,” Karsay says. “This new direction is about letting designers express the way they want to see a floor.”
The first outcome of that approach will be a new collection launching at Salone del Mobile this April: a tile-like timber flooring system designed by Raw Edges. It’s a subtle shift in format, but one that allows for more varied compositions — closer to how tiles are arranged than traditional boards.
For Raw Edges, the interest lies in that balance between experimentation and clarity. “The direct collaboration brings a real energy to the process, allowing ideas to evolve quickly into something beautifully simple and refined,” says co-founder Shay Alkalay.
What emerges is less a reinvention of timber flooring than a recalibration — one that expands its role within interior design while still working within the realities of manufacture and specification.
“We want to keep the Established & Sons DNA — the avant-garde design — but within a commercial reality,” Vissers says.
It’s a position that suggests a more nuanced direction for the category — one where flooring remains foundational, but is given greater agency in shaping a space.
