Natural stone is timeless, so no matter what interior design trends are currently ‘in’, natural stone will always prevail. As a sustainable building material, natural stone is becoming an increasingly popular choice for those who are concerned about the environmental impact of renovation and construction. We’ve explored some of our favourite uses of natural stone within current trends across the interior design community. Read on to find out why natural stone is a fantastic choice for so many interior design trends, for now and forever.
The use of neutral colours is a continuing style trend this year. This choice of interior styling encompasses the use of low intensity colours with little colour saturation. The trend has developed recently, moving away from cooler shades. It now incorporates warmer tones, such as off-white, cream, beige, and tan.
One of the great things about neutral-coloured stone is that, although unremarkable in colour, they also feature impressive veins, fossils and textural elements. These enhance the stunning beauty and add depth and texture to an otherwise bland colour palette.
For a classic look, choose a beautiful honey toned honed limestone to compliment neutral furnishings in shades of beige, tan and light brown. Add blankets and throw pillows, soft fur rugs and tasteful wall art and you’re onto a winner.
Bold colours have also grown in popularity in recent years. There is a shift within the design community towards choosing bright bold colours, such as orange, hot pink, teal, or lilac, to paint both the walls and the ceiling and create a really vibrant space. Dark stone, such as granite or slate, can help to sharpen brighter colours whilst marble can sit well with any bold colour.
For your kitchen, make use of solid coloured navy walls, Carrara marble worktops, and Canary yellow décor for a vivid combination. Alternatively you could select a dark granite tile for the floor. Then use Tangerine orange elements in your design for an energising fusion. Teal is also a beautifully vibrant colour that sits well with paler limestone.
Biophilic design is increasing in popularity. This is as we seek more ways to bring nature into our homes to increase health and wellbeing.
There are lots of ways to bring the outdoors into the home. Whether that is through the use of green tones in paints, wooden furnishings, natural light, live plants and, of course, natural stone. By incorporating a rustic stone, such as limestone, sandstone, or even travertine, you can truly begin to see this design trend take shape.
Pick a soft and warm sandstone and a seaweed green wall paint for a great contrast, then choose dark wood furnishings such as mahogany or walnut to complete the look. Sage green and any warm beige stone are also very well matched. Deep green can look really effective with grey tones found in certain limestones. To compliment the green-grey colour duo, choose soft furnishings in different shades of grey. Also add in some cool toned silver elements.
We’ve seen an upward trend towards using copper. Whether elemental through the use of door handles and light switches, or broader through copper accent tables and wall tiles, copper tones in a room provide a rich and warming glow to any space. As a fellow natural product to stone, real copper can be just as stunning (if not more!) as gold. It’s colour composition can range from deep red to warm orange to sunshine yellow and even a metallic green. The variety of tones in copper are well matched to the variations in the composition and colouring of natural stone.
White based marble such as Bianco Carrara or Calcatta Viola can look even more incredible and luxurious with the addition of copper elements. Tap fittings on a marble kitchen worktop, legs on marble tables, and metal picture frames on a marble fireplace are all great ways of adding copper elements into your home and boosting that feeling of opulence.
Also known as ‘cottagecore’, this trend was essentially made for natural stone. Country homes invite natural stone like cheese welcomes wine – they just go together! Tumbled limestone and sandstone are perfectly suited to this unique style.
This interior aesthetic calls for everything you imagine a country home to be. Natural and organic materials, pastel shades, neutral palettes and, of course, print on print. Although this may not suit everybody’s taste, this style of décor just seems to make sense. And, ultimately, natural stone completes the look.
Want to know the best thing about using natural stone in your interior project? If you try one of the above interior design trends and then decide you want to change the space for something completely different, your natural stone will blend into any style you choose. That’s the timeless beauty of natural stone – it works with any style you choose. What’s more, as natural stone is so versatile with numerous design trends. As such, you could completely deck out the whole ground floor of your home with one type of stone and just change up the interior of each room.
As long as you look after your stone, it can continue to add texture and natural beauty to whatever design trend you decide to incorporate. No matter how many times you decide to switch it up, your stone will endure elegantly. It’s also so easy to maintain stone if you know how to.
If you’d like to learn more about how to keep your natural stone surfaces looking just as beautiful as the day they were installed, get in touch for your copy of Athena Aftercare: our simple guide to caring for natural stone.
Ahead of Decorex 2024, we are exploring the hot topics of the show that so naturally throw stone into the limelight.
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