Maërl begins with the meeting of Stéphan Lanez and Martin Rolland. Both share the desire to offer a modern approach to furniture and interior design, adapted to new ways of living and contemporary spaces. Together, they carry a project focused on creating high-end French furniture with an elegant, functional design that invites a return to what truly matters.
The project is rooted in the tradition of French design, combining conceptual rigor, creative freedom, and technical expertise, with the aim of creating objects that are as useful as they are beautiful.
The name “Maërl” is rich in meaning; it refers to a marine algae native to the Breton coastline, symbolizing a local, lasting beauty in harmony with the environment. The guiding principles of the designer duo are innovation, research, and sustainability. Together, they unite design and eco-responsibility by rethinking materials, joinery, and uses to create durable furniture that lives alongside you. Research also plays a key role, allowing them to design objects for those who use them—by listening to clients and remaining aware of today’s environmental challenges. This leads naturally to a focus on sustainability: objects that develop character and improve over time, free of plastic, dismantlable, repairable, and recyclable, made using noble, natural materials. French, through and through.
Maërl uses high-quality materials, notably bull hides from Normandy and Brittany, tanned in the Vosges, as well as wood sourced from an independent sawmill located in the Brière marshlands. The steel is crafted in Mayenne, while the wooden components are manufactured and the armchairs assembled in the studio’s workshops in Loire-Atlantique. The studio collaborates with trusted sawmills, tanners, saddlers, upholsterers, machinists, and metalworkers to create unique objects using wood, leather, and steel. No petrochemical products are used—nor synthetic glues, paints, or varnishes. The creations are inspired by nature, highlighting natural aesthetic qualities such as the grain of the wood, the patina of the leather, and the texture of the steel.
Maërl brings together art, technique, innovation, and traditional craftsmanship to create objects of exceptional quality, relying on local expertise and the strengths of French industry and craftsmanship.
