Slab Sunday: Vein Cut Silver Travertine

Silver Travertine is quarried in Italy.

 

Photo: Counter Culture

 In this post we will be focusing on Vein Cut Silver Travertine.  The Vein Cut slabs are really popular right now.
Vein cut is the linear pattern.  To read the difference between Vein Cut vs Cross cut go here.

Photo: Walker Zanger

Designed by Steven Gambrel.  Photo: Elle Decor.

 Silver Travertine is a beautiful warm and grey stone.  There are quarries Turkey and Iran that produce a silver travertine as well, but what we mainly use here is the Italian Silver Travertine.

Photo: Kitchen Clarity

Beautiful conference room, they made the floor and table base the focal point instead of the actual table.  It's a great look.

Photo: Marble of the World

Other names for Silver Travertine include: Siena Silver, Silver Screen, Ocean Silver and Amorium Silver.

Photo: By Design Builders via Houzz.

Here's a picture of the block of travertine before it's been cut and processed. 

Photo: Alibaba

Incredible sink and bathtub from Stone Forest that are made from blocks of Silver Travertine.

Photo: Stone Forest

Photo: Artistic Stoneworks

Usually we see Silver Travertine used in pretty contemporary spaces.  As you can see in the photo below, it doesn't have to be the case.  This stone looks great with the Ogee edge detail and with the more southwest looking tile.

Photo: Pacific Stoneworks

Photo: Italy Stone Marble

Silver Travertine is available in 2 cm and 3 cm slabs as well as tile.

Outdoor Kitchens and Patio Bars for Summer

Spring is in the air, Summer will be close behind, and apparently our homes' outdoor spaces are on our minds.  Last week I got an extraordinary number of calls and emails regarding outdoor kitchens and patio bars, so I wanted to share some ideas and thoughts with you.

An outdoor kitchen can be as simple as a small dry bar area on the patio or as involved as an entire functioning room complete with all of the amenities of an indoor kitchen.  Installing a kitchen area outdoors, whether large or small, is a great way to add beauty and function to your patio area and can help make family time and entertaining easier and more memorable. Here are some photos that cover the whole spectrum of what an outdoor kitchen can be.

The simplest way to use stone to create your patio kitchen would be to use a table or bar topped with marble or granite.  We've shown you tables with stone tops before, and a great option would be to upcycle an old table with a little DIY ingenuity and have us fabricate a custom stone top for it.  We have several remnants available in various sizes, so you don't have to buy a full slab of granite in order to get an amazing custom look. Check out this adorable marble topped side table that started out as a rusty thrift store find and turned into a marble topped wonder for more inspiration on that. 

This is a premade kitchen island with a marble top that would look great as an  outdoor bar. Photo source

Mediterranean porch design by Blythe Interiors

                                  

From there, the options are limitless!

Eclectic patio design by Blue Sky Building Company

Mediterranean patio by B+G Design Inc.

Patio by Phil Kean Designs

The next patio kitchen caught my eye because of the beautiful stone coffee table.  The table is similar in style to one that we built for Adamas Stone's showroom in Salt Lake City.

Patio by San Francisco's SB Architects

You probably noticed that the designs have gotten progressively more elaborate, and this outdoor kitchen is about as elaborate as they come.  Complete with a smoker in addition to a grill, a dishwasher, and a flat screen television hidden behind a panel. My favorite part about this particular kitchen though, is that I can proudly say that it is from a company right here in Utah.  When I started thinking about doing a post on outdoor kitchens, my first thought was to turn to my go-to kitchen designer friend Nicole Zeigler at Enzy Design, and she told me about a company that she works closely with called Hallmark Cabinet and their line of outdoor cabinetry.

Photo: Hallmark Cabinets

Photo: Hallmark Cabinets

If you have questions about your own outdoor kitchen, Nicole would be happy to answer them for you, and thanks to Hallmark Cabinet for allowing me to use your photos!

(Please note that this post was not sponsored, I just get really excited when I get to talk about our local resources and companies.)

Breccia Capraia Marble Coffee Table

Check out this table we recently made for one of our suppliers, Adamas Stone.  It's in their new showroom and I just love it with the Barcelona chairs.

They set it on pieces of wood so they could pick it up again.  They are adding a rug that will go under it.  :)

The edges are all Mitered for a monolithic look.  The marble is Breccia Capraia from Italy.
It has some crazy beautiful purple veining, but it's mostly pure white with grey veining.

Photo: MGS by Design

In other news, I was interviewed yesterday for a feature called A Measure of Success on the In Good Measure website.  Check it out here.

Last, I have to tell you about my newest obsession....Pinterest.
Are you all on it?
I was an early signer-upper, but I had not really gotten into it until just recently and HOLY COW. ... I now spend way too much time on there!   
Anyway, if you aren't on Pinterest yet I think you should be.  :)

Designer Spotlight: Architect Joseph Dirand

Joseph Dirand is an Architect in Paris, I'm completely obsessed with his work.  Someday when I'm rich I'll be hiring him to design my dream home.
His style isn't for everyone, it's very sleek and monochromatic.  I personally adore it.  He uses stone in amazing ways and that, my friends, is something that always wins me over.
Here are a few of my favorite images from his portfolio.

To see more of his work you can go to his website here.
Also, there was a good interview with him on A Shaded View on Fashion, you can read it here.  My favorite line from the interview is the last line.  She had asked him with all of the work that he has going on how does he manage his time and have any time to sleep, to which he replies, "It is only when I don't have enough work that I cannot sleep."

Slab Sunday: Empress Green marble

After talking about the "Upside Down" kitchen countertops out of Empress Green marble on Thursday, I thought it only appropriate to feature it today for Slab Sunday. 

Empress Green is quarried in Taiwan.  It's actually not a true marble, it's technically a serpentinite.  Commercially in America it is sold as a marble though.
Here's a description of what serpentinite is from About.com.

"Serpentinite is common beneath the oceanic crust, where it forms by the alteration of the mantle rock peridotite. (See more about serpentinization and its importance in plate tectonics.) But it is seldom seen on land except in rocks from subduction zones, where oceanic rocks may be preserved.
Most people call it serpentine (SER-penteen) or serpentine rock, but serpentine is the set of minerals that make up serpentinite (ser-PENT-inite). It gets its name from its resemblance to snakeskin, with a mottled color, waxy or resinous luster and curving, polished surfaces. Serpentinite is a sexy rock.
Serpentinite is low in plant nutrients and high in toxic metals. Thus the vegetation on the so-called serpentine landscape is dramatically different from other plant communities, and serpentine barrens contain many specialized, endemic species."

Photo: Garden Web

Other names for Empress Green include Empress Jade and Taiwan Green.

Photo: Central Florida Marble & Granite

Empress Green looks really beautiful when it is honed.  It looks more like a soapstone when it's honed, especially when there is enhancing sealer on it.

Photo: Schots

 Since Empress Green is a serpentinite it shouldn't etch like a real marble does, though I do highly recommend testing a sample from your exact slab to be sure (if etching is a concern).

Photo: Carr Stone & Tile

 

Empress Green is available in 2 cm and 3 cm slabs.

Stone on Display

I spent last week in Las Vegas with my husband for our tenth?!? wedding anniversary.
We stayed at the Aria Hotel which is located in the new(ish) City Center on the strip. 
The stone in this hotel was amazing to say the least.  From the countertops and floors to the garbage cans everything was done in beautiful stone.

What caught my eye though was at the Crystals Mall (also located in the City Center).  I noticed so many of the stores were using stone to display their items.  I thought it was interesting and snapped a few photos with my phone. 

This first one is Rain Forest Green marble.  They had built these tables/ columns out of the stone and had quite a few in their window and throughout the store displaying purses and watches.  It looked great. 

I took this picture of the window display at Porsche Design.  The stone is Black Slate.

These next two photos are actually at the Bellagio's Gift Shop.  Their window display shelves were made out of White Onyx.

I'm mad that I didn't get an interior picture of the Fendi store.  They had this beautiful Desert Gold vein cut limestone on their exterior, but inside the store they had used vein cut Silver Travertine for all of their shelving.  It was gorgeous.  I just didn't dare take a picture, I was intimidated by the security guards that were standing at the entrance of every store in the mall!

Anyway, for a stone geek like me, walking around this high end mall where I couldn't afford anything was still fun due to all the beautiful stone on display!

Statuary Marble Kitchen in a Mid Century Home

Happy Valentine's Day.
I hope you all enjoy your day of love.  :)

Today I thought I'd show a kitchen I'm quite in love with, this kitchen knocks my socks off.

The floors are the Silver Travertine that was featured here yesterday on Slab Sunday. 
The island countertops and the killer full wall of marble are Statuary Vein marble.  I'm not sure what the perimeter countertops are, it doesn't say in the article.  Honed Absolute Black granite would give you the same look though.
The marble on the table is Carrara marble. 

 Read the article about this home at Globally Gorgeous.

All photos from Globally Gorgeous.

Our Conference Table {in progress}

One of the great things about being a custom fabrication shop is that we can custom fabricate our own Conference Table.
One of the bad things about being a custom fabrication shop is that we are kind of like the shoemaker's child that doesn't have any shoes.
It was embarrassing that we had been using a wood table for almost a year.  We FINALLY have our table done though!
Here are some pictures of the work in progress, I'll post pictures next week of the finished table.

Can you guess what stones we used?

*All images from MGS by Design.