MakeReal

About MakeReal

We’re transforming how custom architectural products are specified and made.

MakeReal brings design, estimated pricing and manufacturing into one experience. Shape a wall or ceiling to your space, see what it will cost as you go, and get a product we manufacture ourselves.

  • DesignStart from the library, your own artwork or a blank wall, and fit it to your space.
  • Estimated pricingSee the estimate change with every choice, from size to lighting.
  • ManufacturingMakeReal designs and manufactures the product you specify.
Black-and-white portrait of Mario Romano
Mario RomanoDesigner · Maker · Founder of MR Walls

The person behind MakeReal

MarioRomano.

Art you can build around.

Mario’s work brings together art, architecture and digital fabrication. His practice is rooted in a simple pursuit: turning an expressive idea into something that can be made, installed and experienced in a real space.

Read his story

His story

From building homes to building MakeReal.

Mario started by designing and building homes, then turned what he learned into products architects and designers can specify. Each step moved more of the design work into software and digital fabrication.

  1. 2016The Wave House

    He designed and built the Wave House in Venice, California: a white aluminum skin over fluid, carved forms.

  2. MR WallsDigital fabrication, his own algorithms

    For about eight years, MR Walls has been built on digital fabrication and his own algorithms. Mario patented the software platform that runs it.

  3. 2019MR Walls with Corian

    Architectural Digest featured MR Walls with Corian in its look at the future of design.

  4. TodayMakeReal

    MakeReal is its own company. It designs and manufactures the product, with design and estimated pricing in one place.

Mario Romano in front of a white carved wall
With a finished carved wall
Mario Romano standing in front of a large backlit wall in pink and blue light
With a finished backlit wall
Mario Romano in the studio, checking a carved white panel
In the studio

From idea to estimated pricing

Less waiting.More creating.

Customize your wall or ceiling and see estimated pricing as you go, without waiting for a quote or a callback.

From your first idea to a product we manufacture, MakeReal keeps your project moving. When you want a person, talk to our team.

Made around your project

The freedom of custom.The simplicity of standard.

Start with a pattern, bring your own artwork, or create something entirely your own. Shape it to your space, with design and estimated pricing together in one place.

In the press

Featured in Architectural Digest.

The Wave House in Venice, California, at dusk: a white aluminum skin with flowing lines over a cedar garage doorArchitectural Digest
Architectural Digest · September 2016

Inside the Wave House.

A tour of the Venice, California, home Mario designed and built, from its flowing aluminum exterior to the carved surfaces inside.

Read the feature
An indoor pool surrounded by white carved walls in a Great Wave patternArchitectural Digest
Architectural Digest · September 2019

The future of design.

AD’s look at where design is heading included MR Walls with Corian: carved surfaces made for each project rather than repeated like mass-produced tile.

Read the feature

Photography: Jason Speth

Start with a design.

Pick a pattern from the library, size it to your space and see the estimated price as you go.

Explore the design library