FilzFelt + Submaterial Partner Up on a Collection of Natural, Acoustic Wallcoverings

FilzFelt and New Mexico-based design studio, Submaterial, have teamed up to offer a collection of acoustic, modular wallcoverings that add natural texture and graphic patterning while softening sound. Fabricated in two natural materials—wool felt with cork composite backing—this smart collection takes advantage of wool felt’s thickness and rigidity in dimensional (and always colorful) textural wallcoverings.

In seven designs from sinuous organic patterns to repeated rectilinear forms, the patterns use varied thicknesses of felt and customizable combinations of 63 standard colors to create depth and shadow or robust patterning that install with heavy-duty wallcovering adhesive.

Why natural felt and cork? Manufactured in Germany—where the history of FilzFelt’s felt mill goes back a century and a half—wool felt is one of the oldest man-made textiles produced from a simple combination of sheep’s wool, water, and environmentally friendly dyes. On the other side of the continent, cork is harvested from the cork oaks of the Western Mediterranean.

These unique trees regenerate their bark allowing a renewable harvest every nine years. While the bark is used for cork wine stopper production in Portugal, the waste finds a new purpose as cork composite sheets that perfectly pair with felt. These two exceptional natural materials have flexibility, durability, and sound absorption while being renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable.

Submaterial has meticulously crafted acoustic wallcoverings from natural materials since 2006. David Hamlin, founding principal and the talented mind behind it all, embraced magazine cover illustration, furniture, retail design, and entrepreneurship over the course of his career and enjoyed much success including an Interior Design Best of Year Award for Figure No. 2 in 2014.