How each finish is produced: powder coating vs. sealed raw steel
The choice between Matte Black and Raw Steel is not a choice about looks alone. It is a choice about what happens to the panel over the twenty-five years it hangs on your wall — through the humidity of a kitchen, the western sun on a hallway, the salt in coastal air. You are deciding which surface carries your story the longest.
Both start as the same low-carbon steel, 2mm thick, laser-cut to your design. What separates them is the last step.
Matte Black is a powder-coated finish. The pigment is applied dry, then cured with heat — baked, not sprayed. This thermal curing bonds the coating to the steel and gives it scratch and UV resistance higher than any wet-sprayed lacquer. One detail matters here: we apply powder without primer. A primer layer would flood the fine cuts — the hatching, the thin silhouette lines under 5mm — and blur the drawing. So the coating sits directly on clean steel, preserving every line your design contains.
Raw Steel keeps the metal visible. The natural grey surface stays as it is, protected by a transparent protective lacquer — a clear coat, not a colour. You see the steel itself: its grain, its warmth, the honesty of the material. The lacquer is what stands between that surface and the air.
All powder finishes on painted steel are matte. There is no gloss variant — not because we couldn't, but because gloss on steel this thin looks like plastic, and we won't do that to your story.
Corrosion resistance and behavior in humid, coastal, or outdoor settings
This is where the two finishes part ways.
Matte Black, powder-coated and heat-cured, seals the steel completely. Water finds no way in. In a steamy bathroom, a kitchen above a stove, a hallway that catches condensation — the coating holds. It is the more forgiving finish for demanding rooms.
Raw Steel is protected by a transparent lacquer, and that lacquer does its job well indoors. In a living room, a bedroom, a dry study, it will keep the grey surface intact for years. But a clear coat is thinner armour than baked pigment. In sustained humidity — a coastal home where salt hangs in the air, a poorly ventilated bathroom — the risk of the surface changing over time is real. Raw Steel is an indoor finish that rewards a dry, stable environment.
Neither of these is a rusting finish by design. If you want the rust — the deep orange patina that becomes the artwork itself — that is Corten Rust, a different grade of steel entirely, with no coating at all. Its patina is its finish. But that is another conversation, and another panel.
Maintenance requirements and expected finish lifespan
Neither finish asks much of you.
Matte Black: wipe with a soft dry or slightly damp cloth. No solvents, no abrasives — the matte surface doesn't want them. That's it. The cured coating is built to hold its colour and its edge for the full 25 years of physical life we design into every panel.
Raw Steel: keep it dry, dust it gently, and it will stay as you first hung it. Avoid wet cloths left sitting on the surface. In the right room, the lacquer protects the grey indefinitely within that same 25-year horizon. In the wrong room — persistent damp — expect the surface to speak of it sooner.
Think of it this way: Matte Black is the finish you can hang and forget. Raw Steel is the finish that asks you to place it thoughtfully, and rewards you for it.
Cost implications and when each finish is worth it
Price is driven by size and cut complexity — the area of steel and the length of the cut — not by which of the three standard finishes you choose. Matte Black, Matte White, and Raw Steel sit at the same base. Panels range from 79 to 1559 EUR depending on size (S through XXL) and the intricacy of the design.
The only finish that carries a premium is a Custom RAL Colour — your exact shade from the ~213 RAL Classic palette, applied as powder. That is +10%, and the surcharge covers the handling of a made-to-order colour, not the powder itself.
So the decision between Matte Black and Raw Steel is never about money. It is about meaning and environment: which surface tells your story the way you want it told, and which one will still be telling it decades from now.
Decision matrix: matching finish to room and climate
A simple way to decide:
- Bathroom, kitchen, coastal home, any humid room: Matte Black. The sealed, heat-cured coating is the safe choice where moisture lives.
- Living room, bedroom, study, dry interior: Either works. Choose on feeling — the graphic depth of black, or the material honesty of raw grey.
- You want the steel to read as steel: Raw Steel, in a dry room. Nothing else shows the material this plainly.
- You want maximum contrast for a detailed design: Matte Black. Fine hatching and thin lines read sharpest against a deep, even black.
- Strong direct sunlight: Both hold up — the powder coating's UV resistance is high, and the raw lacquer is stable indoors.
Whichever you choose, you are choosing something that stays. A panel outlives the moment it holds — and the finish is simply how you want that moment to look, on your wall, for the people who come after you.
