Natural stone – fear or friend?

We speak to lots of people who have been advised against using natural stone in their home. Many builders, architects and interior designers will have had a bad experience with stone in the past.

We are passionate about educating people towards the best uses of natural stone and here’s just a few of the considerations to make when deciding if natural stone is your friend or foe:

Where is it being used?

There’s such a range of materials that you could choose to work with throughout your home. If your heart is set on using natural stone then there’s some great options for every room as well as some that should be avoided. For example, granite would always be our worktop of choice in a kitchen rather than marble. The main reason being that granite is not is acid sensitive, so won’t be marked by everyday spillages. In a bathroom, we would avoid using dark marbles, especially if you live in a hard water area. We see lots of bathrooms in London with unsightly white marks along the walls where the constant hard water has damaged the surface of the marble.

Who else uses that room?

It is a really important consideration when using natural stone to think about how the room is used. Here’s a few key questions to ask yourself.

Is it your own home, or are you looking to rent out the space? This is an important consideration as tenants may not have the same commitment to the upkeep of the stone as you do. We have recently developed our Athena Aftercare guide especially for tenants and landlords to help resolve this.

Do you have pets and children? We don’t like to generalise but your children and pets are unlikely to have the same attention to detail when it comes to cleanliness. This doesn’t mean not having natural stone at all, but carefully choosing the right stone. A white marble worktop might not be suitable if you’re likely to have multiple tomato ketchup spillages each day!

How much foot traffic goes through the room? We often find that there will be areas of higher foot traffic through a kitchen or hallway which will dull quicker. One way to combat this, and still use natural stone is by having a more hardwearing honed finish.

What is my design priority?

We work with clients every day who love their natural stone and wouldn’t do anything differently if they redesigned their home. For them, the luxury that the natural stone look provides is an important part of the design of their home. Having invested in the stone with eyes wide open, they were prepared to keep up the maintenance and use our services on a regular basis. For others, the priority when designing their home is about functionality and practicality. If you are building your dream home and want to include a natural stone element then don’t be scared.

If we can provide any advice on the expected maintenance then we are always more than happy to. Don’t hesitate to get in touch for a copy of our Athena Aftercare guide.