The unique understated luxury of Gris du Marais®
03.2022
Its distinctive and elegant dappled grey-brown patterning and extraordinary versatility and toughness make Gris du Marais® a truly unique stone.
Gris du Marais®: understated luxury and sophistication
Launched in 2015, Gris du Marais® is a particularly striking marble for its dappled patterning and mix of light and dark shades that hover between elegant pale browns and grey, depending on the light.
Any stone that becomes a part of the select Salvatori core range has to be something out of the ordinary, and Gris du Marais® was selected not only for its distinctive aesthetic, but also for its versatility and ability to work with other coloured stones and materials.
From the moment we introduced this stone, which is exclusive to Salvatori, it became a popular choice of architects and designers, used for commercial and residential projects alike. Let’s take a closer look and discover just what makes it so appreciated, and such a unique and special stone.
The versatility of Gris du Marais®
Gris du Marais® is an homage to Italy’s enduring rich marble tradition, its inimitable dappled patterning evoking the works of the 1930s and 40s of last century by masters such as Gio Ponti, Giovanni Muzio, Piero Portaluppi and Adalberto Libera, who exalted the elegance of gloriously-veined marbles through their architecture.
As sophisticated and multi-faceted as Paris itself**, our Gris du Marais® evokes the magic and elegance long-associated with the City of Love**.
Versatile and chameleon-like in its colouring, this stone oozes understated luxury and works beautifully in any type of design. Its neutral palette that shifts between tones of grey and brown means it can sit comfortably alongside stones in other colours or even completely different materials.
Pair it, for example, with dark metal or stone and you have a stunning industrial design look, or for something more classic or Scandinavian, simply combine it with wood or a light-coloured marble or limestone. Whatever style you are looking to achieve, Gris du Marais® strikes that perfect note of discreet elegance.
The incredible make-up of Gris du Marais®
Gris du Marais® is a marble with a unique structure, containing an extraordinary quantity of minerals that make it instantly recognisable at a glance.
The fascinating array of uber-fine micro-fractures and lines, specks and splashes of colour that can only be measured in millimetres come together to form a simply stunning aesthetic. A classic marble, it changes colour with the light, presenting an everchanging aspect, making it ideal for use in interior design where you are looking for neutral tones but also want that X factor.
Such is its richness of pattern that we tend to use it for only a selection of Salvatori textures, so that rather than being lost or overshadowed, its inherent beauty is able to breathe.
Of course, there is the classic honed finish, and Gris du Marais® is also available in the innovative Lithoverde®, streamlined Infinito and Tratti, where it pairs gorgeously with metal accents in midnight black or gold, for a truly stylish feature wall.
Each of these textures highlights the intricate play of minerals that make up this glorious marble, but it particularly lends itself to our beloved Lithoverde®, made up of offcuts that are then painstakingly pieced together by hand to make up a new block. The random brick-like pattern that results is the perfect showcase for the subtle copper-coloured veining, pale reddish markings and delicate traces of quartz that are all intrinsic elements of Gris du Marais®.
A further advantage is that the natural resin used to bind the offcuts serves to fuse the miniscule cracks, increasing the stone’s mechanical strength so that it becomes tougher and even more versatile.
Tough and beautiful
Gris du Marais® is extremely hardwearing and able to withstand abrasions, impacts and wear and tear, making it ideal for interior use and for surfaces subject to high foot traffic.
Together with its appreciably low absorption index, these factors make it an excellent choice for the bathroom and kitchen, generally the two most demanding rooms in a house when it comes to thinking about a suitable material. That’s also the reason that at Salvatori we recommend it not only for floors, walls, worktops and tables, but also use it for many of our accessories, bathtubs and basins.
As we’ve already mentioned, its neutral tones and understated elegance means it is extremely easy to pair with other elements, but even used on its own in a classic Salvatori Total Look environment, it creates a sophisticated, stylish look, with the inherent fascination of a truly natural material. That is the magic of Gris du Marais®.
The true nature of Scandinavian design goes far beyond mere minimalism. The pale colours, ample use of space and light and coolly sparse, pared-back style which generally spring to mind don’t necessarily reflect the true depth and soul of the movement.
The Milan pied-a-terre of our CEO Gabriele Salvatori opened its doors during the week of Salone del Mobile 2017 giving visitors from around the world a rare look into a special building in the heart of the buzzing Brera design district.
