How to create the perfect décor to make the most of your stone floors
03.2022
Elegant, luxurious and enduring, natural stone has long been a favourite flooring material. Find out how to choose a decorating scheme that optimises its beauty
How to create the perfect décor based on the colour of your stone floor
When you choose natural stone flooring for your home, you are choosing timeless elegance. From the colourful designs of the Seventies to today’s sumptuous but sober neutral tones, natural stone injects a whole new level of style into interiors and lifts the look and feel of any environment it graces.
This makes it all the more important to select the right furniture and furnishings to accompany it so that you strike the right balance of tones and materials and avoid creating a heavy or oppressive feeling. Colour is essential in guiding this process, but what are the rules when it comes to matching the rest of your décor to your floor and can you create both a modern and classic style?
The starting point to deciding on a colour scheme to match your stone floor
Whether found in an elegant living room where guests are entertained, an open-plan kitchen where you chat to friends as you work or an inviting bathroom haven, natural stone flooring sets the scene and commands attention.
To make the most of the brilliant backdrop it provides and ensure it retains its impact but doesn’t overpower the other décor components, you need to take into account elements such as the size of the space, light and lighting and the colour and texture of the floor itself.
Once you are clear about these four factors, you are then ready to think about the overall colour scheme and the type of furniture you need, depending, of course, on whether you are aiming for a classic or more contemporary décor style.
Let’s take a look at this in more detail.
Choosing the right furniture for your dark stone floor
Dark stone floors transmit a feeling of luxury, no matter where they are installed, but in the living room, generally the most lived-in of all spaces in a home, they offer an incredible array of stylistic options.
In a narrow, poorly-lit living room, for example, a smart combination with dark flooring is pale furniture and materials that reflect the light. The rich brown tones of Pietra d’Avola limestone work beautifully with cool white Bianco Carrara, creating a striking but harmonious contrast, while large designer mirrors, such our Quadro, amplify the perception of space and show off the special details in a room.
If you are fortunate enough to have a more spacious living room, you can experiment with layers of a single tone or play with bright-coloured accessories that draw inspiration from the wonderful veins in the stone floor.
Black and dark brown floors are also much in vogue in bathrooms where they can be paired with a bathtub or vanity unit in the same material, perhaps with gold-coloured accents courtesy of tapware and wall finishes for a touch of discreet bling.
Home décor ideas for dark stone floors
With the right furniture, dark stone flooring such as Pietra d’Avola or Gris du Marais® can create wonderful, inviting environments. In spacious, light-filled rooms, layers of dark shades work to limit the sense of emptiness and create a more welcoming, inclusive feel. Add a stylish mirror or two, such as our Anima, and some dramatic light fixtures such as the Silo ceiling lamp and voilà, you have a stylish, luxurious but convivial space.
For small rooms or those with little natural light, on the other hand, you should mitigate the dark effect by opting for light-coloured walls and furniture and here, Bianco Carrara is the perfect solution, whether it is used for an eye-catching modern piece such as the W dining table or to create a soft romantic glow.
Whether on the floor, walls or furniture, we tend to avoid a polished finish for our stone, and opt instead for a classic honed effect as we believe it is not only discreet, sober and exceedingly elegant, but also showcases the essences of the stone itself.
Home décor ideas for pale-coloured stone floors
Turning our attention to pale stone flooring, this is an extremely versatile solution that works equally well with walls and furniture in similarly light tones, strong contrasting shades and bright bursts of colour.
If your preferred decorating style is modern, a white marble floor is ideal for setting off minimalist furnishings and neutral tones. Wall-mounted furniture is a perfect accompaniment, creating a feeling of airiness, as well as making cleaning a breeze.
If your taste lies more towards a classic style and you want to warm up your white marble, simply add a touch of wood to the décor with pieces such as our Adda modular drawers which can also be combined to create a supremely stylish cabinet, installed at any height you wish.
One of the most popular rooms to lay a white marble floor is the bathroom where it can be combined with items such as contemporary bathtubs, shower trays and basins in the same material. Here, a freestanding basin such as our Balnea becomes a focal point and creates a truly luxurious sanctuary.
White or cream stone flooring is also an excellent solution for kitchens, especially when paired with matching worktops. Given the amount of time we spend in this room, if it is light, bright and stylish, it can completely transform the time we pass performing daily chores such as prepping food, cooking and cleaning up.
Choosing the right furniture for your dark stone floor
If you love light, airy spaces, a pale stone floor is definitely for you as it brightens up even the darkest, gloomiest room. It also tends to make a space feel cleaner and tidier, particularly when combined with pale walls and furniture.
As we mentioned above, a white floor works particularly well in bathrooms, where it can accommodate many different looks. Traditional fixtures and designer tapware create a classic minimalist style, but if you want to add an eclectic touch of personality, simply choose a splash of colour for your accessories. Ideally, however, it should be understated and sophisticated, such as the Flamingo coat stand which is also absolutely at home in the bathroom, where its five discs in multi-coloured stone are ideal for holding towels or robes.
As a side note, when you choose stone flooring for a bathroom, kitchen or laundry, you will need to ensure it is protected from substances such as limescale. Make sure you avoid any aggressive cleaning products, and just keep in mind the golden rule of regular cleaning so that dirt doesn’t build up as that is when it becomes difficult to shift. Stone is surprisingly easy to look after and definitely worth a little effort to ensure it remains as beautiful in years to come as when you install it.
Learn about this An elegant haven overlooking Central Park, New York, and dive with us in a daydream.
London can be a pretty hectic place. Every day the Tube – the oldest metro system in the world – carries some five million people through tunnels deep underground; busses ferry about the same number through London’s streets. It is a city always on the move, and when you find yourself with some free time, it can be important to take life at a slower pace, though that doesn’t necessarily mean needing to head out of town.
