An interview with Stickley’s Director of Product Design, Marissa Brown, about how a single Motawi tile inspired a furniture collaboration rooted in shared craftsmanship, Arts & Crafts heritage, and a love of beautiful, well-made things.
There’s something deeply comforting about pairing wood and tile. Maybe it’s the warmth of oak next to the cool hush of glaze. Maybe it’s the way Arts & Crafts design always feels like an invitation—come closer, run your hand across this surface, notice the tiny details made by an actual person.
So when I heard that Stickley was crafting furniture around Motawi tiles, I felt that familiar spark of recognition: two traditions, one conversation.
Curious how it all began, I sat down (virtually) with Stickley’s Director of Product Design, Marissa Brown, to hear the story from the beginning. Marissa joined our call from Brooklyn, where she works remotely for Stickley’s headquarters in Manlius, New York (the company has additional factories in North Carolina and Vietnam.)
“We’ve been a big fan of your company’s work,” she said early in our conversation—a lovely way to start a story about craftsmanship meeting craftsmanship.
The tile that started it all
Marissa joined Stickley around 2017. One of her early responsibilities was designing the brand’s annual Collector Edition piece—an eagerly awaited limited design for what she called the “Stickley loyalist who looks forward to the unveiling of this collector’s edition.” These pieces are Mission- and Arts & Crafts–inspired, teased in advance, launched with great anticipation, and accompanied by a commemorative plaque. For many customers, they’re serious collectibles.
During a visit to the Stickley factory, Marissa wandered into an engineering office and spotted a Motawi landscape tile. “I came across one of these tiles,” she said, “and I was just inspired by the beauty of it and the craft and the handwork.”
“Stickley’s work has a quiet intentionality I really admire. When they use our tiles, I feel a kind of unity—the same goodness and harmony we try to put into every piece we make.” —Nawal Motawi
Marissa knew that the Stickley brothers and other Arts & Crafts makers historically incorporated tile into all kinds of work—fireplace mantels, backsplashes, furniture. “Arts and Crafts makers used tiles often in architectural details,” she said, so it felt natural to ask: why not bring that language into a modern Stickley piece?
The result was the 2019 Collector Edition console—a Mission-inspired piece with a pair of Motawi Riverscape tiles featured prominently on its fascia. To make it feel truly special, Stickley asked us to book-match the design. Marissa described it as “really unique,” noting how the “rivers kind of flow to the center,” creating a serene focal point in the oak.
She was also taken by the tile’s surface. “I was struck how beautifully crafted your tile was,” she said, describing the raised lines and the way the glaze pools in the recesses. “It felt like the perfect collaboration because we’re so much about craft, woodworking and joinery and beautiful details and handwork. It felt in keeping with the consistent message—just a different medium, but a historical reference as well.”
The Floral Tile Collection: furniture you can personalize
The story didn’t end with the console. For Stickley’s 125th anniversary, Marissa and associate designer Joe Dunaske created a series of smaller furniture pieces built around our 4x4 tiles. “We came out with these beautiful, sweet little pieces that were sized accordingly,” she explained, “with the notion of kind of customization and personalization a big part of it.”
Each piece was engineered so the tile could be swapped out by the owner. On one of the tables, she told me, you open the drawer to find clips that hold the tile in place: “You can drop it out and then change it and personalize it.”
That sparked a lovely idea: furniture as a gift that keeps growing. “It became this idea of like, oh, somebody maybe could give it as a gift to somebody and then continue to give more tiles as gifts, or to be even seasonal,” she said. She’d noticed our winter and seasonal tiles and imagined owners changing the tile as the year turned. “You have so many beautiful 4x4 tiles,” she added. “And they were easy to incorporate.”
Marissa and Joe were thoughtful about which tiles to feature. They considered not just the art itself but the rooms these pieces might inhabit. She talked about imagining a table as a nightstand or end table and thinking “about the decor on a bed, bedding… the colors and hues that might be more fitting in those environments.”
The forms themselves are deceptively simple: plant stands that can double as drinks tables, a tray-top table with storage accessed from above, a bookcase with a frieze that drops down to reveal a hidden compartment and a changeable tile. Through it all, Stickley’s attention to detail frames the tile beautifully. “We are known for our craftsmanship and our precision,” she said, pointing out “these recessed squares” that “frame the tile really well. It’s just a nice detail.”
Coat racks, inlays, and a shared design language
Beyond the console and Floral Tile Collection, Stickley also created a coat rack featuring those same Motawi 4x12 Riverscape tiles, sold through their Collector’s Shop. It sits comfortably in a longer tradition of decorative elements in their furniture.
Marissa connected tile to Stickley’s long history of inlay, especially pieces inspired by Harvey Ellis and the Stickley brothers. “When I think about decorative components added to our furniture, we were inspired often by the work of Harvey Ellis,” she said.
“Tiles just seemed like a natural progression in a way, from a decorative standpoint.”
Integrating tile isn’t just aesthetic—it’s structural. “It’s a little bit of engineering, too, because these tiles are, as you know, quite heavy and quite thick,” she noted. Stickley’s craftspeople made sure the tiles were fully and safely integrated. They become, she said, “a part of the architecture of the piece in a really beautiful way.”
Staying true to Arts & Crafts roots
Asked how she balances Stickley’s heritage with a fresh, modern presentation, Marissa's answer could easily describe how we think about tile at Motawi.
“We’re always looking at the Stickley brothers as our inspiration,” she said. A big part of that is staying faithful to joinery and materials. “One of the things that we do work on is trying to hold true to the brand in terms of the joinery or the woodworking techniques that go into making that piece and also staying authentic with the choice of wood.”
For Stickley, that means solid American quarter-sawn white oak—exactly what Gustav, Leopold, and the other Stickley brothers used. She pointed out the medullary rays—the “ray flecks”—that collectors look for in genuine quarter-sawn oak. “Those are things that you really want when you’re buying a piece of Stickley furniture,” she said.
So even when the form is entirely new, those core elements are non-negotiable. “All of that will come into it no matter how… if it’s a reissuing of a Stickley Brothers piece or if it’s something that’s a spin-off in the spirit of Mission or Arts and Crafts,” she explained. “All those things… the joinery, the wood, the clarity of the wood finish… come out in a new form factor.”
Why tile and wood resonate right now
We both noticed the same cultural shift: in a moment when life feels increasingly digital, people are seeking out handmade objects again.
“I think people are really longing for that authentic kind of handmade craft,” Marissa said. “I think it’s also for keeping your sanity—using your hands again and returning to clay or craft… embroidery or whatever it is.”
We’re seeing that at Motawi too. Interest in tours and glazing classes has surged; people want to watch things being made and, increasingly, make things themselves.
Stickley sees it in their customers as well. She mentioned a buyer who purchased four inlay chests—one for each granddaughter—as future heirlooms. Some Stickley buyers are longtime collectors. Others are younger people “saving their money to buy their first Stickley piece” because they’ve heard about its quality from family. Either way, they’re people who want to “live with pieces” that are heirloom-grade.
And the storytelling matters. “I think the more that you can story-tell, the better it goes,” she said. Incorporating Motawi tiles, she added, “adds that rich story to an already rich story.”
Dreaming in tile and oak
“I would love to do a headboard with some tile in it.” Marissa imagines pieces inspired by historic Stickley beds with inlay in the slats and matching nightstands—only this time, those inlays could be tiles.
Long before the Motawi partnership, Stickley made tile-top tables with simpler field tiles. In a way, she suggested, our collaboration is a continuation of something the brand has always done.
“You guys offer more of the decorative element,” she told me, “which is nice to see. You are doing some of the most beautiful tiles out there… they’re just so pretty.”
The feeling is very much mutual. At Motawi, we’ve admired Stickley for years—for their insistence on real materials, honest construction, and designs that feel both sturdy and poetic. Seeing our tiles nestled into their quarter-sawn oak pieces feels less like a promotional “collab” and more like two old souls finally meeting.
“I hope to use more of your tiles wherever I can,” Marissa said as we wrapped up. We’d love that too.
If you visit a Stickley showroom or one of their dealers and spot a little table or coat rack with a familiar tile at its center, you’ll know you’re seeing that shared story: clay and oak, craft and craft, making beauty feel at home.
