When Toronto-based designer Mary Ratcliffe first introduced the Barrow Dining Table in 2021, she wasn’t simply launching a piece of furniture – she was seeding a language. Drawn from the centuries-old coopering technique of barrel-making, Barrow’s faceted curves and monolithic stance marry traditional woodworking with a contemporary sensibility. Now, with the launch of the full Barrow Collection, Ratcliffe expands that vocabulary into a complete suite comprising a bench, side tables, and mirror – each an artifact in its own right, bound together by the same sculptural syntax.
For Ratcliffe, coopering is more than a fabrication method; it’s a conversation with wood as a living material. By shaping repeated trapezoidal staves – or planks – into curved yet angular volumes, she builds both structure and establishes a rhythm with thoughtful repetition.
“I wanted to take those traditional rules about how wood moves and lives,” she explains, “and give them a contemporary spin, simplify it to make them almost a meditation on shape.”
That balance, somewhere between monumental and approachable, defines the collection’s softness while highlighting an aspect of brutalism oft misunderstood. In the Barrow Table, this takes the form of clustered or split bases, their angled cuts catching light and shadow in ways that make the massive appear weightless. The Barrow Bench shifts the table’s forms to the edges, revealing its precision from new angles, while a gentle six-degree contour in the seat offers unexpected comfort.
The Barrow Side Tables, scaled down but still commanding, use cantilevered marble tops to create pockets of negative space resulting in visual pauses that lighten the composition. Offered individually, the nested pair provide even more play. Even the Barrow Mirror, framed in hand-polished aluminum and flanked by faceted wooden “claws,” carries forward the collection’s geometry, refracted into a more jewel-like, wall-bound form.
The technical journey to this point was anything but simple. Achieving Barrow’s signature angled cut – crisp, repeatable, and stable despite wood’s natural movement – took years of trial, custom jigs, and a final breakthrough that replaced solid sections with a veneered, hollow-core build. The result is a series that feels inevitable, yet was hard-won.
The pieces are presented in blackened oak – a deliberate choice that strips away the distraction of grain, letting the collection’s ethereal qualities take center stage. Seen together, they read less like individual objects and more like pristine artifacts originating from the same imagined architectural site – remnants of a tradition that values weight, material honesty, conscientious construction, and the quiet drama of form. In Ratcliffe’s hands, brutalism isn’t cold; it’s a language of precision, patience, and craft, spoken with warmth.
“We make these production pieces with the same care as one would with collectible designs, within that environment. We’re a small team,” she adds. “There’s probably one or two people who are taking your product from raw material to finished product. And there’s something special about that.”
To see this and more by the designer, visit maryratcliffe.studio.
Photography provided by Ryan McCoy.