Tabu veneers — colour from timber

The difference between a dyed veneer and a stained one is depth. Water-based dyes are driven through the full thickness of the leaf, so the colour survives sanding, edge profiles and wear — and because the dye saturates the fibre rather than sitting on it, the grain stays legible inside the colour. A deep green leaf still reads unmistakably as timber; that is the whole point.

Dyed natural veneers take real leaves of a single species and shift their colour while keeping every quirk of figure — the choice when the design wants natural variation in an unnatural hue. Multilaminar (reconstituted) veneers go further: dyed plantation-grown leaves are laminated into blocks and re-sliced, engineering both the colour and the grain pattern itself. The result is perfectly repeatable — useful across editioned furniture and large schemes — and relieves pressure on rare species, since a plantation poplar can be engineered to carry the look of an endangered exotic.

The CALEIDOLEGNO Collection presents fancy structures or geometric inlays. Multilaminar wood is made up of many thin lays of different wood species that, after being coloured individually, are placed and assembled so as to obtain real solid wood from which the veneers are then sliced.

The NEWOOD Collection reproduces the wood species in the various structures and tones. Multilaminar wood is made up of many thin lays of different wood species that, after being coloured individually, are placed and assembled so as to obtain real solid wood from which the veneers are then sliced.

• Marquetry – dyed leaves are the marqueteur’s extended palette: consistent blues, greens and greys that no natural timber supplies, and the same design re-colourable for different schemes.
• Veneer matching – book, slip and quarter matches behave exactly as they do in natural veneer, with the added discipline of perfectly consistent colour across every leaf.
• Statement surfaces – cabinet fronts, wall panels and table tops where colour and grain need to coexist rather than compete.

As an authorised stockist we hold a substantial reference library and can source any specification from the full range — samples through our sampling service, with the wider vocabulary of cuts and matching covered in our veneer glossary and on the wood veneer page above this one.

The Tabu range unlocks colour combinations in timber that no other process achieves, making it the defining surface material for schemes where warmth, depth and material authenticity must coexist.

• Feature wall panelling
• Cabinet and joinery faces
• Bespoke furniture tops
• Hotel headboards and bed surrounds
• Reception and lobby features
• Fitted wardrobes