We all know that marble is a popular material in interior design.
While it makes sense that marble is beautiful and elegant—even to those who are not experts—what other characteristics does this stone have that make it a staple?
Interior designers find marble a suitable material for their projects because the stone embodies the principles of interior design. It’s an aesthetic stone that enhances the user experience in managing the space.
In this article, we provided context about interior design and related the principles to the popularity of marble in the field.
Understanding Interior Design
It is the responsibility of interior designers to transform a place into a better one for the user, and they do that by listening to our needs first.
Needs can range from aesthetic to functionality, such as wanting white marble for the floors or enough space for a home theater.
That’s why these professionals must also know the fundamentals of construction as they work closely with architects by designing the raw space indoors according to our necessities.
The size of a room, the shape of the walls, and the staircase position—interior designers analyze and apply their expertise even with minor details.
Why Marble Is Best for Interior Designing
Interior designers love using marble in almost all types of areas because marble can easily fulfill the principles of interior design, namely:
- Balance
- Unity and harmony
- Rhythm
- Proportion and scale
- Emphasis
- Contrast
- Details
Read this section as we further elaborate on how the qualities of marble complement these principles.
Marble Is Both Minimal and Adventuristic
Marble is a natural stone that we can use for different places meant for varying purposes; it can be a home, corporate building, hotel, restaurant, and even an academic institution.
While we can have marble in a minimalist interior standard for places like an office or other formal establishments, we can also combine it with eccentric design ideas.
It’s a versatile material that we can use to achieve the 3 types of balance in design.
- Symmetrical (Formal) Balance. This is when every object is mirrored and even. An example is having similar chairs on the right and left side of the center marble coffee table in the living room.
- Asymmetrical (Informal) Balance. Here, we don’t have to mirror the objects but ensure that the colors, shapes, and other designs complement each other.
- Radial Balance. There is a central or focal point, such as a round marble dining table, circled by chairs of complementary colors. The chairs radiate outward from the table in the same circular motion.
Marble Provides Wide Options With Appearance
Marble is rich in colors, even with the veining pattern. This makes it easier for interior designers to achieve rhythm with unity and harmony since they also have to carefully choose objects that don’t clash with the overall look.
How does this work? If you can’t find a table with the perfect color, shape, or finish, we can constantly personalize it with marble.
This wide choice of appearance also allows us to add details that don’t overpower the space. An Emperador Dark marble skirting can be our touch of detail in an interior design with a light and neutral color scheme.
Marble Can Jive With Any Interior Concept
Our rooms have plenty of interior theme inspirations: Mediterranean, bohemian classical, modern, contemporary, and more.
With all these themes, marble can easily jive because of its rich design, pattern, and colors—whether referring to non-structural marble walls, floors, or objects such as furniture.
Interior design principles such as emphasis and contrast are present in this advantage. In emphasis, we need something to draw attention; an example is a marble mosaic.
We can install marble mosaics almost anywhere, but let’s make the wall an example. We can customize it to go with your ideal interior concept, which can be the starting point of the room’s design.
In contrast, we don’t want too much contradiction in the style. We recommend marble furniture and fixtures that are lighter or darker than the rest of the room but don’t go outside the color palette, print, and texture.
Working on the emphasis and contrast also refines the proportion and scale. Everything in a room should go together in size to ensure a space is visually pleasant.
Marble Is Architecture-Wise
Even though marble is “softer” compared with its fellow natural stone granite, it’s still demanding that ancient Roman and Greek structures utilize it for their buildings.
Marble is highly durable with its compressive and tensile strength, meeting the standards for structural and load-bearing components. Interior designers know this and agree with architects who also trust marble.
Moreover, natural marble is translucent, which adds more value to its appearance, as it reflects light, especially when polished—this is the quality that engineered marble can’t replicate.
Marble Is Abundant
When we hire interior designers, they pay attention to the availability of the resources that we want to use in our place.
This is one of the top reasons why these professionals use marble. The stone is abundant and accessible to everyone, with multiple countries as a source. Some of them include:
- Italy
- Turkey
- China
- Spain
- India
- Brazil
The abundance of marble contributes to its competitive pricing, allowing many to afford it. There are also laminated marble panels for walls, ceilings, and floors if we don’t want to use a whole marble slab.
Marble Is Sustainable
Sustainability is one of the standards of interior designers when choosing a material for the structure. That is also why marble is at the top of the list.
Aside from we won’t have to purchase new materials now and then because marble is durable, the manufacturing process of marble products for the interior does not emit too much carbon.
There is also no need to use other elements or additives compared to engineered stones.
Importance of Interior Design (and Marble’s Role in It)
1. It Helps us improve our space aesthetically. When we hear interior design, we immediately think of designing, styling, and decorating. This is correct, as professionals in the field transform the space in a way that’s pleasing to our eyes.
Colors have the power to evoke emotions and influence our mood. Hence we mentioned the importance of the design principles, emphasizing the color palette.
2. It Makes our space more efficient for our everyday needs. Interior designers involve themselves with the designing of the naked space. That’s why they listen to our needs and expectations beforehand, as they will work hand in hand with architects to divide the rooms, for example.
Other considerations, such as where to place the windows, how high the ceiling will be, and where to position the staircase so it won’t obstruct the area, are just some of what the interior designer has to analyze.
3. Creates a room for self-expression. Since you will be the one to use or live in the place, the space should look and feel like you. The interior concept, objects, art, and color palette should have your approval, and interior designers know this.
That’s why it’s essential to be transparent with the professionals to achieve our desired outcome.
As per marble’s role, it is one of the few versatile materials that can give us all the principles of interior design without sacrificing longevity and quality.
Conclusion
Interior designers use marble because of its accessibility and remarkable qualities, namely its capability to fulfill all internal design principles. Its colors, patterns, and transparency—combined with the products you can manufacture—make marble a staple design material.
Aside from marble’s characteristics in terms of beauty, this stone is also solid and sustainable. These traits are essential to make the design last instead of wasting budget and space.
