AZUL MARY

Found this new onyx slab called Azul Mary, amazing gray with brown and gold accents.  Wonderful in a bathroom  to go with so many gold or gray stones for the floors and walls.  Glass accents in all the colors of the slab would make this a stunning addition to any home. 

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY OF LAS VEGAS STONE - PART 2

This was the first time that I had visited the Wynn and the Wynn Encore and to be perfectly honest I was not impressed with the floors.  They seemed schizophrenic to me, the mosaics were modern and the marble surrounding them was classic.  It looks indecisive, if you wanted to go modern, do that, and if you want the classic look, go there.

The overall look fails when you add in all of the wall treatments and lighting, nothing makes it's own statement when the flooring is so confused.  If you used a solid marble without the surrounding grid lines the mosics would pop out and be interesting.  The yellow grids pull your eyes away from the mosaics which adds to the lack of clarity of an overall vision.

This cafe demonstrates the confusion in the design vision.  I understand that in Vegas, the casinos only make money when poeple are gambling and so you don't want them taking leisurely breaks.  So the fact that this cafe is so jumbled may be on purpose, I just find it visually uncomfortable.  Cues for the design should come from the modern mosaics in the back because that is your initial sight line as you walk by, the iron base tables work with the mosaics but not the red and cream fabric cane chairs.  Red leather and black iron chairs would blend with both the mosiacs and the lighting giving the whole room a pulled together look and would be far more inviting for a drink or snack before heading back to the tables.

The new Wynn is the same look the only difference seems to be the butterflies instead of flowers.  I realize that massive amounts of planning, installation costs and heart went into the design of the Wynn Casinos.  I just think it fell short of what could have been done in the common areas.  The rooms, suites, restaurants, nightclubs and bars all have their own unique visions and I'm not including those in this critique.

I'm just still trying to figure out what came first, the rugs or the mosaics?  That's my chicken and egg question for the week!!

TILE TUESDAYS - NADEAU COLLECTION

Recently I came across a new source for custom mosaics in Phoenix, Arizona.  The animal print tiles are my favorite find in a long time.  What a great way to accent a bathroom or dressing room and carry the print into fabrics or floor coverings.

The options of using a mosaic like this are endless, you could do one entire wall and the other walls with white or black subway, square or long modern tiles and insert liners of the matching zebra.  The surrounding floor or countertops can be black absolute or white thassos depending on the architectural choices that you made in the rest of your house. 

Another choice of the animal prints is the cheetah, this is a softer look and can be mixed with gold or noce travertine or black Brazillian slate tiles or slabs.  You can keep finishes honed or mix it up a little with polished black granite or polished Jerusalem Gold. 

Any pattern can be made in any stone you may choose and the lead time is less than the shipping time from any foreign port.  Visit http://thenadeaucollection.com/ for more information.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY OF LAS VEGAS STONE

Recently I visited Las Vegas and found some beautiful uses of stone and some that were less than appealing.  The Red Rock Casino won my personal award for the best use of stone.  The designers and installers have every resource at their fingertips and usually a decent budget so I hope to see some great work.  The use of onyx in the back bar is beautiful and backlighting really shows off the stone.

To incorporate this into your own home bar, you can use tube lighting under the bar top.  I have also seen kitchen islands done in onyx that were lit from underneath, what a beautiful way to have shimmering light at night.  Just remember that onyx is very soft and scratches easily, I would never reccomend using it on the floor unless it was tumbled material. 

This quartzite table makes an interesting architectural statement.  The top is polished and the underlighting picks up the mica flecks in the stone.  This piece is incredibly heavy so the choice for leg supports is really important.  I think that this kind of design poolside for a bar or island for your outdoor kitchen would be a unique look as no stone would be the same.  For pool landscaping, quartizite is avalable in tiles, random flagstone and pool coping, the good news is that quartzite does not retain heat like some other stones which makes it perfect for the outdoors. 

More later on the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Las Vegas Stone.

STONE TILE FINISHES - PART 2

LIGHT CHISEL - Used primarily for exterior cladding on buildings and landscape walls.  Could be used at the lower part of a building or column and honed or bush-hammered for the upper part.  Another choice would be for interior walls adding texture to the same stone used on a honed floor.

HEAVY CHISEL - Also know as pineapple finish for it's resemblance to the skin of that fruit.  Mostly used for exterior building cladding and landscape wall applications.  This is a great choice for the back of a fountain, the flowing water down the heavy chisel is wonderful.

SPLIT LINE - On a rough surface, lines are etched into the stone.  A modern look can be created by installing the stone with the lines on the vertical. 

                                                     

SPLIT FACE - The Getty Museum is an example of split face and honed travertine.  Over 108,000 square meters of  Classic Roman travertine from the Lippiello family quarry at Bagni di Tivoli were used at the Getty Center.  The Roman Coliseum was clad in travertine from the same area, you can visualize the huge Coliseum clad in brilliant stone when you look at the Getty Center perched on the hillside.  When a stone is split along its natural bedding plane the backs of the stone vary in thickness and make intallation impossible.  In order to create a uniform thickness, an automated guillotine was created by Mariotti to cut the backs off the stone.  The honed tiles on the ground are actually the backs of the split-faced wall cladding.

TUMBLED -  Travertine is the most common stone that is tumbled.  Backsplashes are painted on tumbled Botticino or Crema Marfil marble, so sometimes a match of the material is more of a design choice.  Double thick pieces are placed in a cement mixer with rocks to knock off the sharp edges.  The tumbled pieces are sawn in half to make the tiles.  Some of the pieces are left intact and used as pavers.  The travertine tiles are full of holes which is the nature of the stone, however, these holes are filled with grout.  Because of the breakage in the tumbling process the larger tiles of 18" X 18" are hard to find and expensive.  I don't recommend tumbled travertine on the floor, especially in high traffic areas, the grout fills are soft, can crack and then fill up with dirt.  The maintainance may outweigh the design choice in the short run.  Tumbled is fine for walls and backsplashes.

STONE TILE FINISHES - PART 1

POLISHED - The most common factory finish for marble and granite, some limestone, travertine and quartzite. The marble and granite are buffed to a high gloss finish. Travertine is softer and very few will hold a high gloss finish and will show traffic patterns over time. Quartzite has a few colors that can be polished and some come in solid surface slabs in addition to the tiles. It takes twice as many buffing machines to polish granite as opposed to marble. (Photo is polished silver shine quartzite.)

HIGH HONE - Finish between polished and honed.  Found on travertine, limestone and quartzite.  Not a high reflective polish but more reflective than honed.

HONED - Smooth dull finish available on tiles and some slabs. Some clients don't like the shine of granite and honing the stone may make the counter top surface more acceptable.  Honed black granite is a softer look than the polished and is perfect for arts and crafts decor.  Polished would be perfect for traditional or modern.   Honed granite can sometimes appear dusty, always have a small piece honed before you make a final decision. Limestone and travertine are most commonly produced honed.  Brazillian slate comes in both tiles and slabs in a smooth honed finish.

SAWN - Diamond saws are used to cut the stone, in a sawn finish the raw saw teeth marks are left in the stone. The best examples of sawn finishes are found on the back side of slabs.  If the stone went through the next step with polishing heads the stone would be honed.

NATURAL CLEFT - Slate and quartzite come in natural cleft.  Both should be sealed before grouting, it will save hours of cleanup time.  Natural cleft if great for outdoor patios and pool areas.  Quartzite does not hold heat the same way that slate does so pool areas stay cooler underfoot.  Slate is not recommended for outdoors in snow or freezing temperatures it has a tendency to flake off the surface.  Natural cleft slate comes in lots of thicknesses from 1/4" to 1".  Gauged slate is where the back is ground down and ranges in thickness from 3/8" to 5/8".  You pay more for the Gauged, but it is much easier and cheaper to install than the natural.  Flagstone can also be included under natural cleft, the difference is the irregular shape of the pieces as opposed to the tiles.  Flagstone comes in crates that cover 200 to 240 square feet. 

BRUSHED - Factory finish where course wire rotary brushes are used on stone to slightly dig out some areas.  This is also know as an antique finish as it resembles the wear patten on old reclaimed stone.  The limestone shown on right is Jerusalem Gold.   

ACID WASH - Muriatic acid is used in different strengths to wash the stone.  The acid dissolves crystal veins and soft spots on the face of the stone creating an antique finish very similar to the brushed. I've found this process to be most effective with Crema Marfil, Emperador Light and Dark and Rojo Alicante.

BUSH-HAMMERED - A mechanical hammer hits the stone's face to create a dimpled surface.  Textures will vary from very subtle to rough.  Bush-hammered surfaces are used as building cladding, outdoor floors for non-slip finishes and interior textured walls.Combining finishes in the same stone or similar ones will build textures into your designs; honed floors, bush-hammered steps and split faced walls will change the direction of your room's design from ordinary to spectacular.  Slab edge finishes can also be three dimentional, chiseled edges on honed solid surfaces can maintain a rustic look for a commercial lobby or residential outdoor kitchen.

SANDBLASTED - There are several grades of sandblasting available from light to heavy.  Sandblasted granite can make a beautiful fountain with water rippling down the rough surface.  If granite was used outside or in a lobby area with pedestrian traffic where slipping was an issue, sandblasting the stone could fix the problem.  Re-seal with an enhancing sealer and the color should come back up in the stone.  I've seen sandblasted counters on outdoor and indoor kitchens to remove the gloss of polished granite.  I always recommend that you have sample pieces done to make sure you are happy with your fininsh choice.  Work with your fabricator and/or designer to get samples of different finishes.

FLAMED - The most interesting flamed stone is Jerusalem Gold, which when flamed turns pink with gold undertones.  This is another finish for granite that creates a rough texture that makes granite slip resistant.  If slabs are badly scratched, flaming will make them usable for outdoor applications or cladding.  Flaming may not work on standard 3/8th" tiles, they have a tendency to crack under the heat, it is best to use this on slabs.  This is also known as a thermal finish. To have this finish on tiles they should be purchased that way from the supplier, factory or quarry.

JERUSALEM STONE

Jerusalem Stone in all of it's various shades and finishes is one of the most versatile limestones to use for both interior and exterior floors and walls. On the top level of the quarry is the bone colors moving down to the gold and then the grey. Combining the colors is easy as they blend together so well. The tiny fossils found in all the stones add to their movement and character. Working with well supplied distributors will make it easy to use split face on the walls and match a chiseled edge pattern on the floor. Stones from the same quarry will also allow you to match solid surface slabs and wall treatments.

The bone color is a warm beige with hints of gold and grey. This particular stone may not work for a modern look as the most common look is a chipped edge or brushed finish. The only way to make this a more modern look is with straight edge cuts and modern shapes, bricks laid on the vertical or thinner elongated pieces in an edgier pattern. The other way to create a more modern vibe is with the use of glass or metal or both in the design. When figuring out the overall design of your kitchens and bathrooms have several favored choices of wood stain chips with you when you shop in order to visualize your final project. Jerusalem Bone is available in various shades and other names are Hebron Fossil Cream or White, Jerusalem Cream, Pearl and Karina.

The most popular color choice of the Jerusalem limestones is the gold. Ranging in hue from light to dark it a a perfect blend with many wood stain colors and granite counter tops. Most of the Jerusalem limestones cannot be highly polished but should have a high hone if you want a shiny finish. The tiles are available in many sizes from 4" to 36." The larger tiles will become thicker as the size increases. The smaller tiles will be 3/8" and the large 36" tiles could be up to 3/4" thick. Antique reclaimed pieces could be up to 1" deep. When doing a renovation make sure what depth the butting floors are before deciding what tile size you may choose. Thresholds can be made from leftover slab pieces at your fabricator. Different shades of Jerusalem Gold are Cannan Gold, Antique Gold, Ramon Gold, Benjamin Gold, Galil, Halila and Hebron Gold. If you are buying from several sources make sure that you get samples of the suppliers latest shipment in order to match not only the colors but also the type of veining.

The grey Jerusalem Stones weren't widely used in the US until the late 1970's when the limestone was used for building cladding. The movement in the stone was more interesting than local materials. In Jerusalem the buildings are made from the gold and bone hues, the grey is not widely used for exteriors giving a price break for those early buildings. The Jerusalem quarries foresee at least another 100 years of supply. Recently archaeologists believe that they have discovered the original quarry from before the time of the Romans that the stones of the wailing wall were cut from.

The Benjamin Grey and Ramon Grey compliment the Carrara marble that was shown in earlier posts. The Gold limestones blend very well with the Calacatta Gold.

There is also a salmon colored Jerusalem stone available. The pink stone is created when the gold limestone is flamed. More on finishes later. My favorite place to shop is with Abe Judah at Jerusalem-stone.com they have an incredible selection of tiles, sinks, slabs and trim pieces.