Unilin Master Oak: your scratch-resistant alternative to veneer

Elevating interiors

It is Master Oak’s ability to combine performance, design integrity and sustainably in use that makes it an ideal decorative panel to elevate interiors with a high-quality surface finish.

Like any of UNILIN Panels’ performance HPL or melamine finishes, Master Oak is exceptionally scratch and stain resistant. In fact, it’s up to three-times more scratch-resistant than real oak for a surface that’s suitable for use on desktops shelves, doors, hotel furniture, storage, cupboards, partitions and more. Colourfast, it also remains just as easy to clean as any other UNILIN Panels surface.

At the heart of Master Oak’s impressive true to life look and feel is UNILIN’s Timber Touch Technology. This gives Master Oak its impressive feel, so that it has the touch of real oak – from rough to smooth and everywhere in-between. It also gives a uniquely matt finish that has almost absent shine levels for a natural ‘unfinished’ effect. Along with more colour play and depth, and better sharpness and contrast from its printed layers, Master Oak looks exactly like oak. The same technology also allows UNILIN Panels to create the largest pattern in the industry for an authentic effect and fewer repeats.

A sustainable pioneer since its foundation in the 1960s, UNILIN Group has a circular philosophy to the production of Master Oak, committing to keep wood in circulation for as a long as possible. For Master Oak, UNILIN Panels uses 100% recovered wood of which more than 90% is recycled wood such as old furniture sourced from cities and towns surrounding production sites.

Using more than 90% recycled wood in the making of Master Oak is made possible by the industry’s most advanced sorting and cleaning process. An ultra-modern machine sorts the post-consumer wood, using a mix of processes including magnets, wind sifters and centrifuges to remove impurities. UNILIN Group has invested 40million Euros over the past six years to develop the technology and through using wood that would otherwise have been incinerated, it gives continued life to more than 1,000,000 tonnes of recycled wood every year.

Project proven

Master Oak is already a beautiful and performant surface in a range of commercial projects, demonstrating its ability to deliver high function under different applications.

At Huis van de Kappers, a hair salon in the Belgian town of Waregem, Master Oak has been used for the built-in cabinets and partition walls. Giving a stylish look, Master Oak is also far more resistant to scratches and stains than real oak, making it more suitable for the durability and maintenance needs of a busy hair and beauty salon, where chemical dyes and exposure to heat and moisture are commonplace.

The stylish stairways and sleek built-in cupboards at the new Izegem, Belgium offices of pet product manufacturer Moderna, use Master Oak Brown as an eye-catching feature. Master Oak brings the look and feel of genuine wood with the durability and performance benefits of a surface made with busy commercial interiors in mind.

Master Oak is also proving its worth in the Ghent offices of specialist hotel software firm OTA Insights, featuring on Clicwall partitions between desking areas and meeting rooms. The look is continued in built-in office cupboards for unified look that maintains a high-quality aesthetic. Clicwall is UNILIN Panels’ fast and easy to install wall and partition panel system.

It’s not just retail and office projects where Master Oak is making its mark. At Belgium’s Hotel Corsendonk, Master Oak Natural is used on the tabletops of the restaurant. Stain-proof, scratch-resistant and colourfast, Master Oak has the relaxing and welcoming look of genuine oak in a table surface that’s durable and easy to look after.

Award-winning

Master Oak’s excellence in design, performance and sustainability has already been recognised at international awards with the decorative panel picking up top honours in two high-profile awards.

At the DNA Paris Design Awards, Master Oak has been recognised for its innovation in sustainability. Winning the ‘Product Design: Responsible Design’ category, Master Oak’s sustainable construction has been recognised by an international panel of architects, designers, curators and editors. Entries into the DNA Paris Design Awards are evaluated on criteria that are constantly adapted to current standards.

The decorative panel has also been awarded at the Muuuz International Awards (MIAW). Organised by muuuz, a leading French architecture and interior design news website, along with D’A magazine, the awards have been running for a decade, rewarding the most innovative products in architecture and design. Master Oak has won in the ‘Design (Furnishing) Materials and Surface Finishes’ category.

Also a finalist at the Mixology 22 and FX International Design Awards in the UK, which celebrate the best in commercial interior design, Master Oak is becoming recognised as a high-quality alternative to real oak for designers looking to elevate interiors.

A marvel of product innovation

Regular HPL and melamine-faced panels only have around three or four depth levels, which limits how much texture can be applied to the surface. Master Oak is made with Timber Touch Technology, which has 64 different depth levels for 20 times more texture than regular structures. Combined with digital printing technology that’s unique in the industry and UNILIN Panels’ focus on sustainability and performance,

Master Oak is the more sustainable and affordable alternative to oak veneer.

As Caroline Van De Populiere, R&D Director UNILIN Panels puts it, “With Timber Touch Technology, we’ve pushed the envelope of expectation for authenticity in decorative panels, developing a look, texture and feel that’s inseparable from genuine oak. Combined with the durability and ease of use of our melamine and HPL surfaces, this makes Master Oak something of a marvel – a wood-based panel product that combines a true to nature appearance with class-leading sustainability and performance.”

For more on why Master Oak is a marvel, visit https://www.unilinpanels.com/en-gb/interior/master-oak