A legacy in wood
A craft that began in 1890
The story began in 1890, when the first generation of the Schrauwen family crafted wooden cases for grandfather clocks. Over five generations, that refined craft grew into an ever-deepening understanding of wood: where it comes from, how it behaves and how it can be shaped, protected and brought into an interior.
Johan continues that story as the sixth generation. He carries forward the knowledge of his predecessors while exploring new possibilities. Across changing applications and techniques, respect for the material remains the thread that connects them.
Reading what the tree reveals
Johan grew up with the workshop as part of everyday life. It was his playground long before wood became his own life’s work. That instinctive connection remains in the forest, where he wants to touch and understand the trees, and in the workshop when a trunk is opened for the first time.
What appears inside can still leave him in wonder. Lines, tonal shifts and markings suggest how the trunk might be cut, which sections belong together and where its character could unfold. It is a moment he likes to share with clients, inviting them to see how their wood begins to take shape.
Perhaps this is why exceptionally long and wide planks remain so close to his heart. They preserve the uninterrupted grain, allowing the length and growth of the tree to remain visible within the interior.
Where wood and people meet
Where Johan reads trees as others read books, Petra reads people. Her appreciation of natural materials began while she was a student, when she founded a company importing natural stone into Belgium. She already understood the appeal of materials shaped by nature, each with a character that cannot be repeated.
Johan begins with the material: its proportions, technical possibilities and the questions for which no ready-made answer exists. Petra begins with the person, listening to what a client wants to create and connecting those wishes with what the material can offer.
Nobel Flooring takes shape between those two movements: technical knowledge and imagination, wood and people, the history within a tree and the life of a future interior.
A material that lives on
The challenge lies in the architectural meaning wood can acquire. How can it bring calm, establish direction or connect a floor, staircase, wall and detail? How can lengths, widths, patterns, colours and finishes become parts of one coherent whole?
Every space calls for a different response. Sometimes the floor remains almost silent. Sometimes its proportions or a carefully considered connection become more visible. The fulfilment lies in the moment when material, space and people come together, and the result feels naturally right.
Honouring the tree, carrying its life forward
Wood has lived before it becomes part of an interior. It needed time, light and a place to grow. Craftsmanship reveals what that life has created and gives it a new purpose, in spaces where people will live, work and make memories.
For Johan and Petra, that responsibility gives the family legacy its meaning: knowledge passed on through attention, involvement and the choices made every day.
