To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories
To revisit this article, select My Account, then View saved stories Onyx White Marble
To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories
To revisit this article, select My Account, then View saved stories
All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Heavy slabs of Breccia Capraia marble with striking, cookies-n-cream veining. A kitchen island hewn from Tikal green marble, a statement stone sourced in Guatemala. A shower clad in a Milky Way of striated stone. Lately, when it comes to speccing surfaces, designers and their clients are getting gutsier than ever.
Forget the subtlety of travertine (last year’s surface du jour) or the always-in elegance of snow white Carrara. Right now it’s all about an eye-popping specimen—strong veining, unusual colors, and (for the ultra-daring) perhaps a graphic mix of both. Surfaces need not blend into the background; they can say something too. Let’s call it personality marble—that essential dose of pattern that can make any interior pop.
The all-over marble bathroom of Tinder founder Sean Rad and his wife Lizzie Grover Rad, conjured by AD100 designer Jane Hallworth, was featured on the cover of AD in January 2022.
A wine-colored Calacatta Viola–clad bathroom in a Melbourne penthouse by Greg Natale.
“Bold stone allows a kitchen or bathroom to transcend utility and feel like a work of art,” says Aussie interior designer and self-proclaimed maximalist Greg Natale. “Vivid color, verve, and a sense of movement through expressive swirls and veining just takes everything to the next level.”
It’s been a longtime through-line in his projects. See, for example, the chunky, wine-colored Calacatta Viola bathroom in this Melbourne penthouse, or a Brutalist home in Sydney, which features an unforgettable marble bar.
According to Gerardo Cortina Wiechers, the CEO of stone supplier Arca, the vogue for statement stone has been growing over the last five years. "The shift of the business has been huge,” he told AD PRO at the brand’s Miami showroom last December during Art Basel. “Six or seven years ago, everyone was using whites, grays—simple stones. These days, you see blues, you see reds, you see everything." Unusual stone, in his view, is a new kind of conversation piece for a home.
A freestanding onyx bar by Roman and Williams is a showstopping moment in Gwyneth Paltrow’s Montecito living room.
In Troye Sivan’s Melbourne home, a Flack Studio marble vanity is paired with candy-striped marble floors.
A look back through the last year or two of AD proves his point. In January 2022, our cover called it with the all-over marble bathroom of Tinder founder Sean Rad, conjured by AD100 designer Jane Hallworth. (The same Rorschach-like stone clads their kitchen and shower, which features a matching marble bench). Then there was Gwyneth Paltrow’s onyx living room bar by Roman and Williams, the night-sky swath of Black Agatha marble in Ellen Pompeo’s entryway, and the pink-and-purple stone stripes that line Troye Sivan’s bathroom floors. Then there were the awe-inspired geological specimen—Brazilian fossil marble, green onyx, 17,000 pounds of forest green marble—that were applied to surfaces in a Milan apartment designed by Luca Cipelletti.
And that’s just the tip of the quarry. “I feel the human eye connects better with a color and pattern that is created by nature,” muses interior designer Viktor Udzenija, who used both liberally in a London pied-à-terre, where gray Arabescato marble clads the entryway, pink-and-black slabs form doorways and shelves, and bathrooms are wrapped in super-graphic Grand Antique and Rosso Levanto. He recently took the material to the next level with Little Rocker, an avant-garde rocking horse carved from Carrara marble (just 12 millimeters thick) and unveiled with Objective gallery in December at Design Miami.
We’ve been seeing this trend out and about too. In Cartier’s new Laura Gonzalez–designed New York flagship, walls, floors, and fireplace are clad in stop-you-in-your-tracks stone. And in the new Cult Gaia shop in LA, designed by AD100 designer Alexis Brown, the bathroom is wrapped in delicious orange onyx—a tribute, according to founder Jasmin Larian, to the stone work of Greek architect Dimitries Pikionis, who paved the streets of the Acropolis in Athens. It’s even a star player in Athena Calderone’s new collection for Crate & Barrel.
Brazilian fossil marble wraps a powder room in a Milan apartment by Luca Cipelletti.
Interior designer Viktor Udzenija enveloped the powder room of this London pied-à-terre in Grand Antique marble, pairing it with a faceted mirror that creates an optical illusion.
“If you’re not quite ready to use wall-to-wall bold stone, the smaller scale of a powder room can be an opportunity to experiment with some of these more daring decorative flourishes,” explains Natale, who has his own collection of stone tiles and accessories. For more adventurous homeowners or designers, Natale has some advice: For larger surfaces, such as a kitchen backsplash, he reaches for slabs with overscale streaking, which can be book-matched for dramatic effect.
For bathroom walls, he might pair large slabs of something more subtle with graphic tessellations of different bold stones on the floor. “When mixing bold stones in this way,” he advises, “consider juxtaposing some block-colored stone with others that are more intricately patterned.” His personal favorite color combo? Pale pink, deep burgundy, and forest green.
When it comes to stone, you’ll also want to think about how you’re using a space before making a selection. For counters, darker or jewel-toned stones might be more forgiving than traditional choices such as Carrara or Calacatta since they’re less likely to show stains or discoloration. For flooring, Palladiana offers the vibrancy and luxe factor of marble with the durability of terrazzo.
The kitchen counters and island of Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent’s renovated New York family home are clad in Calacatta Turquoise Antico marble from ABC Stone.
The powder room in this Fort Lauderdale home designed by Jake Arnold is a riot of Calacatta Fantastico marble.
But why, in a design scape that is honing in on so-called “quiet interiors,” are we simultaneously seeing an emergence of bold, dramatic stone? “I think it’s a rebuke of bland, cookie-cutter interiors,” muses Natale, who counts the design choice as a perennial favorite. “It reflects a spirit of adventurousness and a desire for difference and originality.”
He also sees it as a byproduct of the recent vogue for ’70s and ’80s Italian interiors, in which patterned, in-your-face stones are hallmarks. Yet for Udzenija, the answer is even simpler: “The eye rarely gets tired of nature.”
Jaxx Red Marble Side Table
Swirl Stepped Bookends by Tom Dixon
Ripple Fruitbowl in Saint Laurent Marble by Dan Yeffet
Rosa Marble Serve Platter by Athena Calderone
Bendum Box by Ferm Living
Diaspro Siciliano Narrow Vasque Vase by Michaël Verheyden
Plinth Bridge in Calacatta Viola Marble
Grace Accent Table in Green Marble by Moe’s
Monolith Side Table in Nero Marquina
La Sienna Piccolo Dark Red Marble Plinth Side Table by Athena Calderone
Marble Rug by Rodarte for The Rug Company
Designers Share Their Biggest Color Mistakes—And How You Can Avoid Them
Why Stylish People Are Choosing Understated Flower Arrangements
7 Budget-Friendly Buys Interior Designers Say You Should Never Splurge On
Grace Kelly’s Provençal Estate Can Be Yours—And Other Real Estate News
15 Beautiful Brown Paint Colors Designers Are Loving Right Now
21 Celebrity Homes You Didn’t Know Were in the AD Archive
Everything You Need to Know to Create an Instagram Business Account
Join the AD PRO Directory, our list of trusted design professionals.
Green Marble Kitchen © 2023 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Architectural Digest may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices