For the love of walls
About ORAC®
ORAC® is a Belgian family business and a global market leader in the design and production of high-quality 3D ornaments. It offers a wide range of skirting boards, cornice and panel mouldings, wall covering panels, decorative elements and even profiles for indirect lighting. More than 400 employees of 12 different nationalities give their very best for the brand every day. Besides the Ostend hub, ORAC® also has production sites in Slovakia and Russia, and sales offices in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and Spain. The products are distributed in over 90 countries around the globe.
The story of ORAC® started now more than 50 years ago, when Guy Taillieu, the father of Laurence and Yves, founded the company on September 24th 1970. He was 24 years old and wanted to put his innovative ideas into practice. ORAC®, short for Ostend Research and Application Center, did exactly that: it used the latest technologies and materials in new ways and applications. The coastal city of Ostend was chosen as the base for this innovative company.
An eye for beauty
The initial period saw a series of firsts. In 1992, ORAC® marketed the first FLEX products. These flexible mouldings set the tone for innovative material choices and surprising applications. The first indirect lighting profile followed in 1993, the first water-resistant skirting board came in 1999 and so on. The company's passion for technology resulted in a broad portfolio of patents. Yet soon the focus shifted to decorative design too, with great success. Interior decoration and inspiration lie at the beating heart of ORAC®. Today, it is internationally renowned for the aesthetic added value and creative freedom it offers to its clients.
“ORAC® cherishes the fact that it is a family business.” Yves Taillieu, the CEO of ORAC®, explains. “The company is run by professional management and now led by the second generation. We are continuously developing new solutions, designs and markets. The desire for innovation is in our DNA.”
Walls with personality
“Where most people see an empty wall, we see a blank canvas, ready to give walls personality!”
Using ideal proportions and timeless profiles, wall decoration has the capacity to completely transform a room. A cornice moulding covering more of the ceiling than of the wall, will broaden the room. Covering more of the wall, it will make the room appear higher. Rails and panelling bring symmetry and order to the room and can highlight certain interior features by literally framing them. They are the perfect allies to build on existing architectural elements in your interior and to add indirect lighting or wallpaper. Using the same skirting board in different sizes throughout the house ties the rooms together and creates a sense of consistency. An instant interior makeover is achieved with 3D wall panelling.
From floor to ceiling, wall profiles can answer to each and every interior design difficulty. But the ultimate goal at ORAC® is to transcend functionality and to offer a stepping stone towards your creativity and interior design dreams, whether they are modern or classic. Walls determine the atmosphere of a room, regardless of the interior style. If your mood board exudes modernism, go for stepped profiles, diagonal lines or indirect lighting. Looking for a maximal feel? Ornamented, floral profiles or fingerprint wall panels might be the right fit. The options are abundant.
And so is the history of wall decoration, because although these design functionalities might seem modern, the art of wall decoration goes back thousands of years. From the first primitive animal depictions in caves, to Roman fresco’s and even beetle-covered ceilings in a royal palace, there is an inability in us humans to leave a wall empty.
ORAC®'s architectural elements offer everyone the tools to get creative themselves. From Modern to Classic, they build on more than 50 years of design expertise. “Our innovative materials and modern technology preserve otherwise disappearing ornaments and make them accessible to everyone. We aim to be a beacon of passion, inspiration and loyalty. Those are our core values,” the CEO adds.
A sustainable vision of the future
It’s out of this respect for history and timelessness that ORAC® will continue to focus on sustainable entrepreneurship in the near future, as it has done in the past 50 years. Everything starts with quality 3D products with a lifetime warranty. But that is not enough. ORAC®’s main goal is to consistently reduce their environmental footprint and to become restorative by 2050. Already almost all production waste and water is recycled at the Ostend site. It also generates 16% of its own energy consumption by using solar panels.
CEO Yves Taillieu: “We have CO2-neutral operations since 2021. But we want to go beyond that, and that is why we are investing in additional solar panels and alternative production materials, for example. Like our support to local charities, it is our way of giving back. It is our way of establishing a healthy, long-term relationship with the environment and the world we live in.”
More information? https://www.oracdecor.com
