When you are planning a home renovation, you have free reign to get in touch with your inner interior designer. The floor is such an important aspect to the overall feel of any room, and we hope these four beautiful floor designs will get your creative juices flowing.
When building or renovating a home, or replacing an existing floor, the materials on offer are almost limitless. We believe stone is one of the best and most healthy options for your mind and body. Natural stone allows you to reconnect with the essence of nature. Your feet can feel the history of the textured material and there is a wide array of visual textures that tell a story, too.
Stone is particularly great for high traffic areas, such as the hallway, as well as high humidity areas, like the bathroom and kitchen. Stone’s durability and water resistance, when compared to other flooring options, make it a logical choice in these rooms. In addition to these qualities, stone tiling is easy to clean, and will not hold dirt in the same way as a carpet does, for example.
But the real draw is usually an aesthetic one — natural stone floors are bold, beautiful and captivating. You can transform the look and feel of any space with a stone floor.
If you’ve been dreaming about a home renovation, or just looking to refresh a room, you’ve likely browsed Pinterest for inspiration. We suggest taking a look at some of the projects we helped complete for more inspiration.
Here’s our pick of the best natural stone floors from Pinterest to inspire you in your home renovation endeavors.
1. Classic Granite: White Galaxy
Granite flooring is more durable than marble, as it is extremely dense and hard. Polished granite finishes are the ultimate in smooth feel and will continue to look and feel beautiful for decades if cared for in the right way.
This is an example of the way in which a classic natural stone tile can bring out the characteristics of the other materials in the room. A lighter floor tile, when paired with darker cabinets, will provide contrast and boldness.
White Galaxy granite will give a similar effect to the flooring pictured above. It's a gorgeous sparkling white that contains light brown flecks and garnets. When you examine it carefully, you notice a red hue to its underlying tone, which brings a depth of character that is subtle rather than in-your-face.
Granite’s wow-factor is often in its ease of strength. It is reflective both literally and figuratively — you will notice the shine and it will give you pause for consideration.
It is also a fairly uniform stone tile, so the variation from tile to tile is minimal by comparison. The veining is more consistent than with marble, for example, so if you’re looking for a solid look, this is an excellent material to consider.
2. Be Bold with Contrast in Your Bathroom
A white bathtub stands out strikingly when paired with a dark tile. Our Negro Marquina marble tile is one of the boldest choices when it comes to polished finishes, and the depth of its white veins are close to what is shown in this remarkable bathroom.
This bathroom shows tiles that are perhaps not quite as powerful as the Negra Marquina — the tiles shown here have a gradient between the darks and lights in places. Negro Marquina is so powerful because of the heavy contrast between brilliant white and deep black.
Negro Marquina polished marble tiles are so intense because their opaque darkness seems to be shattered by the pure white veining detail. It is a contrast that is so vivid and unique. As with natural stone, the veining is irregular and wild, which gives any surface that uses this material a charismatic and deeply interesting character.
3. Complement a Dark Tile with Bright Grouting
You can emphasise the tiling pattern through the careful selection of grouting color. In this design, a dark, textured slate tile has been used to great effect with a brilliant white grout. In the same way as the dark bedrock of the Negro Marquina tiling mentioned above is contrasted with white veining, you can create this kind of effect yourself with the right grout color.
This not only emphasises the pattern of the tile design underfoot but also reinforces the lighter shades utilized on the ceiling, walls and kitchen appliances.
When you opt for a dark tile, you should consider the color palette of the rest of the room — be aware of the amount of darker materials in one place. There is a fine line between a bold, deep, statement look, and a space that is too gloomy and dark.
One factor that makes this choice a little easier with natural stone is the natural depth of most types of stone. It’s impossible to have a dull surface made from natural stone — every tile tells a story.
With a dark tile, you have choices to make concerning implementation. If you want something that gives the same effect as the one in the kitchen highlighted above, look at the cleft-finished Montauk Black Slate tile.
The difference between a natural cleft face on the tile and a honed finish will change the way the stone feels to your feet, as well as the overall look. A honed finish laid out similarly will have a sleeker, more overtly contemporary feel.
4. Get Creative with Parquet Patterns
This bright and airy kitchen is finished beautifully with the addition of an exciting floor tile pattern. It’s subtle, as the pale color of the grouting is similar to the color of the floor tile. But in this case, the use of a parquet pattern highlights the solidity of the material of the flooring.
Parquet is a geometric pattern usually and utilized initially through the use of wood blocks. It is an enduring technique, and in this case, the chevron-like repeating pattern is artfully muted, owing to the shades chosen.
A perfect way to replicate this look is through the use of our Jura Beige honed limestone tile. There is a richness to this shade, and with a similar pattern as employed above, you can get a depth of body that will add to the gentle elegance of this configuration. Our tiles are sold in rectangular cuts so that you can employ this effect if you wish.
Another similar effect can be found in a Rosal Honed limestone tile. There is less obvious variation in this material, but you can find a sparkle effect if you look closely thanks to the small crystals found in limestone’s metamorphic geology.
Jura Beige, however, is sourced from Bavaria and is one of the most popular limestone tiles around. This is due in part to its creamy beige mottled effect, and the array of fossils and ammonites that are visibly trapped within the stone. It seems to whisper it’s history through these highlights.
There are also ways of going really bold, with a statement color, for example. Our Indian Juparana Light tiles combine pink, gray and black tones, and when viewed from a distance looks like it has a textured rose finish.
Bolder still with color is Rojo Alicante — a red polished marble tile with incredible depth. The amount of variation from tile to tile, as well as its rich red coloration, is an incredible draw that can transform any living space.
Whatever you decide, natural stone is an excellent choice for a renovator looking for solidity, elegance, and a unique look. Every stone tile tells its own story, and you can add your own chapter to that story by placing it in your home.
Renovating your home? Looking for ideas? We have one of the widest selections of natural stone tiles in the USA. Browse our complete selection of floor tiles today, and get your home ready for tomorrow!
