One of the main advantages of using natural stone in your design is the durability of these products, so you may be thinking that trends are unimportant. However trends gradually evolve and knowing where we are headed can keep your project from looking dated.

The Green Building movement has become mainstream, and being environmentally responsible is changing the design aesthetic. Designers are looking for durable and practical choices to increase the longevity of the look, with a neutral color palette and an emphasis on quality over quantity. New products are being introduced to the market at an incredible pace, and combining these new green products with more rustic or traditional elements is creating unique new styles, such as Rustic Contemporary. Natural elements like stone and glass fit into this new eco-friendly aesthetic perfectly. Global Granite & Marble® is also proud to distribute such products as Caesarstone, and Vermont Danby Marble which have specific appeal to those looking for potential LEED qualifying building materials.

We hear “neutral, neutral, neutral” all of the time, and the range of neutral colors is expanding. Gray has become the new workhorse of the neutral palette. Now gray is being tweaked and mixed into thousands of shades of taupe, mushroom, charcoal and oyster colors, all of which are common in natural stone, and ideal choices for large spaces. Also, the expansion in the number of gray options in glass, ceramic and quartz surfacing products is astonishing. Designers now have lots of choices available to create rich palettes of subtle neutrals that can calm the eye and visually enlarge a space. For a stunning kitchen incorporating gray, consider Sage Brush, or Azul Aran granite for countertops.

Although there is an emphasis on neutral, don’t forget about color. Greens are very comfortable, natural colors to add to a neutral palette. Colors such as Coast Green or Costa Smerelda granite can create a soothing kitchen.

With the use of more tone-on-tone color palettes, texture becomes a key component of any design. Layering reflective polished surfaces with matte and antiqued elements gives a design depth as the light plays across the different textures. Glass, ceramic and stone mosaics alike now take advantage of the different textures available to create surfaces that sparkle and flash as the light changes. As new methods of processing natural stone have come to market, like suede finish granites, we see them consistently gaining popularity.