Rock You Like A Hurricane
Hey there, thank you so much for joining me today. If you’ve ever even looked into renovating or remodeling your kitchen or bathroom, I wouldn’t be surprised if the topic of stone came up. Stone is used in interior design for all kinds of purposes from wrapping entire walls to miniature decorative marble book ends. What can be confusing is the variety of types of stones, which ones to use, and how to use them. But at the end of the day we are just talking about some rocks, so put on your Indiana Jones costume because we are digging into the WILD world of stones, so you can find the one that works best in your home.
Before I get into today’s topic, let’s talk about the color of the week. Have you started watching Squid Game yet? I’m late to that party, but I’m not so far removed from society that I haven’t observed this Korean Drama series on Netflix is the most popular show right now, and its international success is one for the records. Not only is the show Netflix’s most watched original series to date, but with subtitles in over 37 languages this show is captivating the entire planet. And with Halloween in our rear view mirror, the signature teal track suit from the show was a common costume choice for both groups and individuals. That’s why this week, Squid Game Teal is my color of the week. This soft, green-blue can be incorporated into your home by using Benjamin Moore’s Intercoastal Green 672. This normally calm color has been completely charged with life or death stakes and can add a pop of media trendiness into your space. For your next seasonal party, try serving drinks in an army of teal paper cups, with only a few classic red ones around to enforce the rules. Or try sporting one the actual teal track suits, they are sure to be on deep discount at every costume store.
This episode is brought to you by Soft Landing Studio. If you enjoy this podcast and want to work with me directly, you can select from a variety of one-on-one virtual consultations about your specific home, office, or retail interior design project. Whether you want a quick brainstorming session, a series of regular check-ins during your renovation, or to work with my full interior design services; you’ll get amazing design ideas, life changing solutions to problems you’d never thought you could resolve, and a space you feel proud to call your own. And for the holiday season, you can now purchase gift certificates for the 45 minute Creative Consultation. This is the perfect gift for the design lover or brand new home owner in your life. Go to www.softlandingstudio.com to schedule your experience now. And while you’re there, don’t forget to download the absolutely free Guide to Getting Started. This fun-filled PDF quiz will orient you at the very beginning of your interior design journey. If you know you aren’t 100% happy in your space, but you don’t know what to do about it, this guide is for you. You will be directed towards big idea solutions, so you’ll know what to do, and most importantly, what not to do. Visit www.softlandingstudio.com for you free copy today.
Stones and rocks are all around us. Chances are, somewhere below you is a strong layer of bedrock that’s supporting every structure you see. The full creation process and lifecycle of granite, marble, and other stones spans over millions of years. That means from a rapidly renewable materials lens, in terms of sustainability, stone does pretty poorly in that category. We can’t really “make more” or “grow more” stone in this lifetime. The saving grace is that when stone is used in buildings, when it’s selected and installed properly, it has the potential to last the better part of a lifetime. You’ll likely get sick of looking at it before it gets truly damaged or fails. The Great Pyramids were made out of limestone and they’re still kicking around today.
Rocks have become super popular in the last ten years or so years with lots of folks, myself included, carrying pyrite and different types of quartz in our pockets for good energy and protection. Whether or not you buy into the spiritual principles of stones, every stone does have pragmatic properties to be considered. We’re going to start at the beginning with the real gritty basics around this earthy materials, and then we will dive into the different variables to consider when deciding between stones.
As bored as I was in my middle school earth sciences class, if someone had said the information I was hearing would help me as an interior designer, I might have felt a little more enthusiastic about the course matter. Once a stone is polished, shaped, and installed, it can be easy to forget these are the same stones we see in nature, of which there are three major types; Sedimentary, Igneous, and Metamorphic. Each of these categories are defined by how exactly the stone is formed by the earth over those millions of years. Now I am not a geologist by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m going to give you a quick idea of what distinguishes each of these rock types.
Sedimentary rocks include Limestone, Shale, Sandstone, Onyx, and Travertine. This type of rock is formed by the collection of minerals and other particulate matter at the earth’s surface, plus a process called cementation which is basically crystallization via ground water that binds all the particles together. These types of stones are often formed at the bottom of a body of water, which leaves its mark in a number ways. With the exception of Onyx, these stones tend to be somewhat uniform in texture and color, at least in comparison to other stones. Limestone is typically a champagne color with organic veining that is so subtle, it disappears if you squint your eyes. It’s not unusual to see little fragments of fossils and seashells suspended in time within its grain. Travertine is similar is to limestone, but its veining is usually linear and of more pronounced, you’ll notice a stripe or striae look to most travertines. Travertine is also considerably porous, and often needs to be treated and filled with resin to make it practical for an interior environment. Sandstone has a visible, slightly organic grain and comes in a variety of colors including pink, grey, and yellow. This stone is true to its name in that it’s made from a lot of compressed sand, which gives it a rough texture, making it fantastic for outdoor wet areas like around your hour tub. Shale is a darker gray stone with a barely there texture that’s made up of lots of thin layers, the edges kind of look like a broken Tim Tam cookie - rough and jagged, but still inviting. Shale is so thin that it’s often used just for the cladding on walls, but it breaks quite easily, so it’s often ground down and mixed into cement. Onyx is frequently thrown under the marble umbrella, with its swirly grain and wide range of colors from jet black to bright white. However, not only is this stone created in a completely different process than marble, Onyx is very special. It has a translucent quality to it, when thinly sliced, it allows light to pass through. An amazing example of this is the Beinicke Rare Books Library on Yale’s campus, which uses onyx in lieu of glass windows to reduce harsh UV rays that could damage the fragile books, while still allowing a sense of sunlight for the humans in the space. All of these sedimentary stones, from a metaphysical point of view, promote healing and grounding of both the mind and body.
The main Igneous rock we work with is Granite. The latin word Ignis means fire, and these stones are created from molten hot material, aka magma or lava, that then cools and solidifies. Large granules (see the root word connection there, grain, granules, granite?) of minerals are bonded tightly together in the cooling process, giving the rock its strength. Igneous rock can be found all over the world in different geological conditions, you don’t need to have a local volcano, although that is a good source. In the world of interiors, granite is likely the most discussed stone. Its speckled composition varies widely based on the exact composition of minerals, which include quartz, mica, and feldspar. Some types of granite have more of a wavy grain to them in addition to their speckly flecks, for instance Giallo granite has a certain directional flow to it. Absolute Black granite is quarried in southern India and while it has the strength and quality of granite, the flecks are all black-on-black and have a much more monolithic appearance. It’s also my personal favorite granite in case you were curious. There’s another super special granite that’s often referred to as Van Gogh granite. It’s bright classic blue and cream colors are as swirly as a piece of Calcutta marble, evoking the famous Starry Night Painting. This rare stone comes from one quarry in the world, naturally in Italy. Granite brings an energetic sense of protection with it, which isn’t surprising considering all those granite medial fortresses.
Last, but not least we have our Metamorphic rocks which includes Marble, Quartzite, Slate. These are kind of like the vinegars of the rock world, the same way vinegar was alcohol and it gets further distilled and transformed, Metamorphic rocks are formed when existing rocks are put under extreme pressure and temperature changes, causing a major chemical and physical metamorphosis! This accounts for a vast variety of types of marble - it all depends of the different minerals that get swept up in that particular marble as its being transformed. High levels of calcite create lots of white in marble. Iron Oxide produces pink or gold colors. Magnesium can create a green hue. Graphite, boiled down from aquatic life like fish bones and algae, creates a dark gray with a glittery finish. The intensity of veining is different for every variety - Carrara is a light tone-on-tone gray and white swirl, while Michaelangelo Marble is almost as active as leopard print, with similar coloring. Another marble look alike is quartzite. Where marble is made up of a full buffet of minerals, quartzite has gone through the metamorphoic process with mostly quartz, and is therefore significantly harder and less porous than marble. Quartzite is different than the manmade, engineer quartz products that are very popular right now. We are talking about a naturally occurring stone that personally I think a lot of people sleep on when choosing a kitchen countertop. It’s one of the most durable natural stones, more durable then granite, with the dreamy look of marble. Lastly, when Shale goes through the metamorphic process, it often yields slate. Slate is slightly more glittery than shale and in many cases slightly harder. There’s a little bit more dimensional stability and slate was historically used of roof shingles. If the stone continues on the in metamorphic process, it phase changes a few more times before finally becoming Gneiss (pronounced nice), which is harder than granite and sometimes used on the exterior of buildings. Energetically, metamorphic stones will bring a calming and cleansing undercurrent where they are used.
Now that you are familiar with the three main buckets of stone from a geological viewpoint, it’s important to note that many stone retailers will group limestone, marble, and travertine into the same category; mostly because their maintenance is similar, but if anyone tries to tell you that limestone is marble and marble is limestone, geologically speaking they are wrong. It’s like saying wine is vinegar. You might be able to substitute one for the other in cooking, but you’ll know the difference if you have even the smallest sip. Marble is made from limestone typically, it just needs another few hundred years of cooking.
These three basic categories can help us to understand how things like cost, lead time, and appearance start to come into play. Of course within each type of stone are many variations. The exact location of where the stone comes from determines its appearance, strength, availability, and cost. While many stone quarries exist all over the globe, as of 2016 there with 276 quarries in the US alone according to Marble.com Each quarry produces a fairly unique looking stone. But shipping, taxes, and tariffs all come into play when selecting a stone. It’s common to hear that granite is less expensive than marble, but this is only true some of the time. The most rare granite, the blue I mentioned earlier, and that can be upwards of $300 per square foot. Consider looking into local quarries in your region to find stones that maybe easily available to you.
Another big consideration is the finish of the stone. I mentioned sandstone has a naturally rough feel to it, but most stones can be polished or roughed up depending on the desired effect. Granite, marble, quartzite, onyx, and travertine can all be polished to a mirror-like sheen. Most stones are available in a velvety matte finish referred to as honed. Granite is often installed with what’s called a flamed finish, with is exactly what it sounds like - the heat from a flame produces a rough and weathered look that’s excellent for floors in public spaces, high traffic, or wet areas where slipping is a concern. If stone is going to be used on a wall or another vertical surface, it can receive a variety of more decorative textured finishes, including bush hammered which creates a stippled effect, or line chiseling that gives a linear look to stones like granite and limestone that may not have much of a grain to begin with.
When working with stone in large slabs, as you would for a countertop or back splash, it’s critical to consider the cut of the slab, which is very similar to how we looked at the cuts of wood in the episode Knock on Wood Part 2. Stone comes in giant blocks, and every block has some kind of a veining direction. When a stone slab is sliced off the larger block, it can be done in one of two directions. If it is sliced parallel to the the vein, it’s referred to a vein cut, and produces a more regular appearance, which in many stones looks linear or striped. If the slab is sliced perpendicular to the grain, it’s called a cross-cut, and this produces a more organic, swirly, non-directional pattern. What you chose is based on the look you prefer.
In terms of cleaning and maintenance, metamorphic and sedimentary stones of all kinds tend to be more porous than our granite igneous rocks. Even still, all stones need to be sealed to prevent staining from coffee, wine, and oils. This can be done by you or be your stone installer with a water-based, food safe, resin impregnating sealer. The more porous the stone, the most frequently it will need to be resealed. Granite can go a full year, marble can be everything 3 months.
Now sealing is critical for blocking stains, but it doesn’t do much to prevent scratching. For that, you have to understand the hardness that’s inherent in each stone.
Just like with wood and the Janka Hardness scale that we talked about in the episode Knock on Wood Part 1, a stone’s hardness can be measured on a scale called the Mohs scale for mineral hardness, which uses a rating of 1 through 10 (1 being the softest and 10 being the hardest) and includes everything from sodium to diamonds. This system is not perfect, it’s based on observational scratch testing and doesn’t necessarily indicate how a mineral will perform in certain environments. However, it still provides a comparative analysis when looking at different types of stone. Natural quartzite is the most likely winner of the more commonly used stones on the scale -coming in at a solid 7. Minerals higher up on the scale such as diamonds and conundrum don’t form in the large slabs that are needed to make your kitchen counter top. Granite and sandstone are tied at a close second with a rating of 6, travertine falls between 4 and 5 depending on the exact variety, limestone and marble land between 3 & 4, and fan favorite slate at 2.5, and bringing up the rear at 1 is soapstone, which while is the softest of the lot, is naturally dense enough that it doesn’t need to be sealed, you’ll see this used in chemistry labs.
Now that you have the facts on all the big varieties of stone, the next time you need to consider a particular stone type for a project, remember it isn’t a one size fits all. Go with what draws you in. What do you think looks cool and interesting from the local quarries in your neck of woods? There isn’t a one size fits all solution when it comes to stone and there are so many varieties and options that to say something had to be granite or has to be Carrara marble is myopic! Let yourself explore the world of stone, and try not to forget where it came from. Until next time, take great care of yourself, and I will speak to you in the next episode.
