REAL MARBLE – CLASSICAL BEAUTY IN YOUR HOME

Real marble worktops?

We have seen an increase in interest in using real marble in homes. Some of this has been for bathrooms with vanity tops, but we have also fitted more kitchen worktops in marble. Here is a quick look at some of the available stones.

You have to remember that quartz materials often copy marble for a reason. It isn’t price, so much as the softness of real marble. It is very prone to scratching and chemical etching. We have written before about the use of marble in kitchens, but the trend only seems to have grown since then. 

As a rule of thumb:

If you want the best translucent beauty, then you can’t beat real stone – but you must be ready for it to change over time and in use. It will weather into your home!

If you want greatest stability and resistance to scratching and staining, then choose a marble-look quartz. You may pay a little more, but you will get a much harder material.

So many basic marble-look quartz materials are copies of Carrara – though real Carrara has far more of a linear vein to it than the soft random mottles of the quartz stones – including our own AG Carrara. Carrara marble is not horrendously expensive.

Arabescato Marble. We recently received this slab and two more from the same block for a kitchen in New Malden. Wonderful honed surface, and a beautiful translucence to the stone.

Staying with a basically black and white, monochrome look, this is Arabescato Orobico Grigio Marble. Imported into the UK by Culliford of Kingston, this is a totally stunning grey marble.

Calacatta Macchia Vecchia is one of many stones that begins to bring some colour in. The gold element in it has a quite different look to the gold in man-made materials like the Calacatta Gold quartz copies.

Our own – in stock – Terra Bianca is a kind of marble. It’s actually a Dolomite – a marble where the calcium ions have been replaced by magnesium, making it harder and more resistant to chemical attack. You don’t need to understand the chemistry to love this beautiful stone, which can vary significantly in colour from block to block.

Rosso Luana marble is one of the most eye-catching natural materials I have ever seen. The pattern is stunning both on the large level (see the full slab image) or close up (the image with my hand.)

Verias Green marble has deep sea green hues. We have seen a trend towards green and blue over recent years, and it is in the green tones that marble can really score, as this and the following examples show.

Verde Luana Marble – similar patterning to the Rosso above. 

Verde Guatemala marble for kitchen worktops. Another even deeper and richer green.

Vert de Rajasthan Marble – another very rich green. We recently used offcuts of Vert de Rajasthan from a kitchen job to create a bathroom vanity layout in a Horsham home.

Marble is the real thing – and there are ways to live with this lovely stone

Marble has its weaknesses – but its strength is its transcendent beauty. There are two ways to enjoy that beauty without being troubled by the softness and susceptibility to etching that characterise real marble.

1. Use it in low impact environments. This luxury bathroom back panel was cut on our waterjet. The golden marble was actually inlaid into quartz, which we also cut. In this kind of location there is very little risk of damage to the natural sto
2. Live with the changes that are part of the nature of marble. If you use natural marble in your kitchen, it will change over time. Don’t fear that – embrace it. Let the occasional scratches and etched bits on your worktops be the map of your life in your kitchen. Embrace the stone – embrace life!