Stone, so many, how do you decide?

Stone turns up all over a house. Kitchen worktops, bathrooms, floors, the garden. It comes in a lot of forms, and which one suits you depends less on taste than on how the room gets used.

Natural stone is the starting point. Sandstone, quartzite, granite, basalt. Marble, where the veining shows, is unlike any manufactured surface because the pattern was not designed. Every cut piece is different, and nobody else has yours.

Marble is used to give a room drama, in both a polished and a honed finish. It is a hard material and it is still unforgiving about stains. Like limestone, marble is permeable meaning liquids will go straight through it. If red wine, orange juice or curry sauce spillage is a recurring event in your home, maybe marble is not the right stone to go for. Sealants can be used but it does add a layer to the stone that can discolour the stone so be careful.

Granite is a very popular stone for work surfaces. Highly durable, a hot pan can be taken out of the oven and placed directly on to the counter top without any harm to the stone. The stone is scratch resistant, maintenance being very low with the likelihood of granite work surfaces needing to be repaired or resurfaced being at a minimum.

Moving away from the natural stone, ceramic tiles are coming back in fashion for bathroom backsplashes and flooring. Ceramics come in an abundance of colours and patterns with Moroccan style tiles being very popular. Glazed tiles are water and stain resistant, and they hold their shine. They are durable underfoot. The drawback is the amount of grout involved, and the need to seal it. This does mean that over time, the grout will become dirty and therefore will need to be redone.

The surface taking over the market is porcelain. It is non-porous, frost proof and stain resistant, which makes it hard to beat for floors and worktops. It has been available for years, but the printing has improved so much recently that many slabs are indistinguishable from real marble.

Coming in many different styles and designs, individuals wanted something that was cheaper than marble, non-porous but looked just like it. Marble effects are printed onto the porcelain, and the darker prints are close to indistinguishable from the real thing. The lighter white marble prints on porcelain are also very realistic though don’t hold as much depth and dimension as true white marble does. However, with how far porcelain has evolved in recent years this is sure to soon be on par.

Porcelain can be printed in single sheets of 3200 x 1600 x 6mm meaning very little grouting is needed. Not only is porcelain produced to look like marble, it comes in many different shapes and styles, fit for lots of individuals.

With so many options for floors, worktops, shower walls and splashbacks, the choice comes down to practicality as much as taste. Trends vary from geometric hexagons and fishtails to triangles which are the new fashion. You can also get such an array of colours now in tiles that a bathroom can be as fashionable as a bedroom. One last tip. London gardens are small, so people have taken to running the same stone floor from the rear kitchen straight out onto the patio. It lengthens the house and reads as one space.

If you are renovating a kitchen or a bathroom, tell us what you are choosing between, or call us on 020 7731 6841.