Fulham Reach

The Project

A starburst wood veneer headboard for the Helix show apartment at Fulham Reach

Fulham Reach is a Berkeley Homes development on the Thames in West London. The Palmer House building comprises private residences alongside an amenity floor: spa, pool, gym, wine cellar and private cinema. The Helix apartment was designed by Atellior as the project's show home — a brief that requires every material and furniture decision to carry weight, because a show flat must communicate the character of the full development to prospective buyers.

Atellior's approach for the Helix is warm and restrained: natural materials, a subdued palette, nothing gratuitous. The master bedroom headboard is the focal piece — a starburst pattern executed in oak veneer, developed as a response to straw marquetry. The geometry suits the material. Oak veneer holds precision at the centrepoint in a way straw cannot, and the natural grain variation across each leaf gives a depth that a lacquered or painted surface would not.

Our commission was the headboard. We produced the veneer pattern from precision-cut oak leaves, hand-laid in mirrored pairs to build the radial composition. Grain, tone and scale were all reviewed against the room through a sample process before specification was locked. The finished piece is mitred at the edges and internally reinforced so it presents as a single clean form.

Craft

The Starburst Pattern

The starburst is formed from oak veneer leaves cut individually, matched for tone and grain direction across each pair, and hand-laid in mirrored pairs before pressing. At the centrepoint, where all sheets converge, any tolerance error accumulates across the full radius and shows immediately in the finished work. The geometry is precise at every joint. At distance the pattern reads as a composed geometric form; close up, the natural variation between leaves — slight shifts in grain, subtle tonal differences — is what gives it its quality.

Material

Wood Veneer as a Design Material

Straw marquetry is fragile and demanding to maintain. Oak veneer replicates the visual language — radiating geometry, natural material, handworked quality — while adding the durability a residential headboard requires. Veneer is sliced from the log: a single tree yields a large surface area, and the process is inherently less wasteful than solid timber. We source FSC-certified material throughout and apply low-VOC finishes. The finished piece holds its form, cleans easily, and does not react to humidity the way solid wood or straw would.

Specification

Headboard

Wood Veneer Marquetry

Starburst pattern — precision-cut leaves laid in mirrored pairs

Material

Oak Veneer

Natural grain variation within each leaf; sustainably sourced

Development

Fulham Reach, Berkeley Homes

Riverside West London — Atellior interior design

Technique

Hand-Laid

Centrepoint precision-matched where all veneer sheets converge

Setting

The Show Apartment

The Helix apartment at Fulham Reach shows how a single bespoke piece integrates within a complete interior proposition. The Berkeley Homes development sits on the Thames at West London — Palmer House offers an amenity floor alongside the private residences: spa, pool, gym, wine cellar and cinema. Atellior's approach for the Helix is warm and restrained: natural materials, a subdued palette, nothing gratuitous. Our headboard occupies the master bedroom as a quiet centrepiece — architectural enough to anchor the room, tactile enough to reward the occupant.

Fulham Reach
West London