The aesthetics and character of marble, granite and co. lend any interior a particularly high-quality ambience. In addition to light limestone, dark colors also come back into play. New types of inlay arrangements from Italy and millimeter-thin stone veneers are ingenious.
Light-colored stones are still at the top of customers’ favorites for flooring. “Light-colored limestone is still a big hit. As customers want as few joints as possible, dimensions of one by two meters are not uncommon,” says Kerstin Neuhoff, Managing Director of Neuhoff Natursteinwerke in Schwanfeld, Franconia. Whether these formats are used ultimately depends on the spatial conditions. After all, the tile has to fit through doors into the building and there has to be enough space to lay it.
Over the past two years, warm colors that create a cozy atmosphere in the home have once again been the focus of attention at the imm cologne furnishing fair and the Abitare il tempo interior design fair, which takes place alongside Marmomacc. Italian designer Claudio Selvestrin had already initiated a trend reversal towards darker colors in interiors in 2014. He chose the extraordinary limestone “Jurrasic Brown” for the design of his trade fair stand for Antolini. Spanish stone processor Levantina has also followed this trend with “Granit Cheyenne” and “Negro Canfranc” marble. Two new types of stone were recently added to the range, whose black color with striking veins stands for elegance and high quality.
Innovative processing techniques for working with stone have also been demonstrated by architects and designers at important trade fairs such as Marmomacc in Verona. Italian designer and stone “artist” Raffaello Galiotto, for example, has given a new significance to elaborate inlay work. For the Italian stone specialist Lithos Design, he has combined the art of marquetry with industrial design. The result is an infinite variety of repetitive, perfectly color-coordinated shapes and figures that completely reinterpret stone and its processing.
Read more about innovative floor coverings made of natural stone in STEIN in February 2016.