marble & other materials
Recently I’ve been working more and more on the interior details behind the scenes as the main building steps are inching along. As you’ve probably read through the past posts, the stone details are quickly becoming a new obsession for me. The tactile materials that I’m choosing for many areas of the interiors are some of my favorite parts of the process so far. And there have been a few new materials and stone picked out in the past couple of months to update you on.
From the very beginning of the plans for the interior I knew that I wanted to have a marble island in the kitchen. (It was one of the non-negotiables that I have stuck to!) I envisioned an island that was very minimal and highlighted the material as a sculpture more than a functional piece. All of the visual appliances would be in other areas of the room, leaving this space completely free, open, and monolithic in a way.
After looking at many options over the past year (even going up to Carrara to visit some of the many marble companies that are just below the quarries) and learning so much along the way, I’ve finally decided on a calacatta marble (which also comes from Carrara). More specifically calacatta oro (gold) which not only highlights the pure white background and striking grey veining, but also mixes in a warmer brown/tan hue of vein as well. I thought this mixture would warm up the usually cool-colored nature of this stone and would tie in the concrete and woods which will be used throughout the room.
The marmista from a town about 30-min away, has their own quarry nearer to Carrara and found this piece for me and held it in reserve for the past few months until I was able to visit in person. It didn't take me long to decide to move forward with it. I think it will be stunning piece, and so we met together with the falagname (carpenter) who is building the kitchen cabinetry to go over the details. They are both satisfied with how the process will work between the two of them and I’m looking forward to seeing this isola come together.
some of the travertine choices
Another piece that has been completed for me recently is from our local stone yard (who made the sink for the powder room). After sketching out a couple of ideas for a 2-piece coffee-table and picking out a travertine stone for this. We went over the measurements, angles, and finishing details and I left them for a month to do their magic. When they called me a couple of weeks ago to say it was ready I was even happier with the final product than I expected. There’s so much more to say about the designs for the furniture, but I’ll be definitely going over more of this as we move towards putting the interiors together on-site.
It’s absolutely beautiful stone, and was one of the last pieces existing from a now-closed quarry near San Casciano dei Bagni. I think the warm ripples of color will tie in nicely with the burnt warmth of the leather chesterfield sofa and cremes of the seats which will be around this table in the living room.
Then just a few days ago as we were visiting another company in the region who specialize in importing antiques from India and the East, I unexpectedly spotted 2 sinks that caught my eye.
We were there because we’re ordering the flooring from them for the yoga studio space. This will be the only room where I won’t be using resin floors, and instead opted for a softer wooden finish. Last year we’d spoken with the owners of this company because we’d seen that in their showroom they had beautiful antique handmade wooden tiles which are made from reclaimed teak wood from India. It seemed fitting for and Indian floor to be the foundation of the yoga space and so after a while of negotiating with them, they agreed to sell their own flooring to us (since imports currently are quite difficult for many reasons). We are planning to pick the tiles and planks up this coming week and then will need to resand, wax, and polish them. But I’m looking forward to the warmth they will add to the house. They were even quite pleased to know that I was using it in a yoga space and said that the spirit would be good in there… I agree. We talked about India for a little bit as well as they’d lived there for many years and we said how much we miss visiting.
Anyway, back to the sinks…as we were discussing the flooring, I noticed 2 sinks which I’d never seen there before in their store. They are of a lovely subtle marble and not completely uniform. I love how you can see the handmade tactile quality of each sink. I asked for a measuring tape and they ended up being the exact sizes I was looking at for the main bathroom. It seemed serendipitous. The price was excellent (about a third of the ones I was looking at having made here), so I went ahead and decided on these as well.
The room we’re currently using for temporary storage of all of the supplies I’m collecting in the meantime is getting fuller and fuller by the week. There was even a vintage mid-century chair I ordered online last month and I kept it packaged when it arrived. It will feel so exciting to begin unwrapping each one of these treasures one by one and helping them find their new homes…