The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Perfect Natural Stone for Your Home

Natural stone is a timeless element that brings modern elegance, sophistication and beauty into any space. You can choose from various natural stone types for homes, selecting the perfect color and veining to match your design style. Whether you’re upgrading your home or designing a new space, natural stone creates a stunning look.

How to Enhance Your Home With Natural Stone

Natural stone comes from quarries around the world, crafted as witnesses to history and curated from the rich minerality of their countries of origin. Rare stone slabs give your home a special touch of unparalleled beauty and bring your design dreams to life. You can incorporate natural stone into your home in the following ways:

Natural Stone Flooring

Natural stone flooring gives any room a unique look and feel. A luxurious white marble floor can give your bathroom a spa-like aesthetic, and dark gray or black granite flooring throughout your home can create a polished, sophisticated appearance. The following types of natural stone are excellent options for your next flooring upgrade:

  • Granite
  • Marble
  • Limestone
  • Travertine
  • Quartzite
  • Quartz Remove this is manmade 

Natural Stone Countertops

Natural stone countertops are the perfect way to enhance your kitchen or bathroom. Various colors and distinctive veining create a timeless look that manufactured materials can’t replicate, giving your home an exclusive touch. You can adorn your kitchen or bathroom with the following types of natural stone countertops:

  • Granite
  • Marble
  • Quartzite
  • Limestone
  • Quartz
  • Onyx
  • Dolomite
  • Soapstone

Hearths and Fireplace Backgrounds

You can create gorgeous hearths and fireplace backgrounds with highly heat-resistant natural stone. Natural stone creates a timeless, visually captivating focal point in your living spaces, and it integrates seamlessly with various aesthetics and design styles. The following types of natural stone are highly heat resistant and excellent options for a fireplace upgrade:

  • Granite
  • Marble
  • Travertine
  • Quartz
  • Limestone
  • Soapstone

Cladding Pillars

Cladding pillars are an exquisite way to incorporate touches of natural stone throughout a home. Including natural stone pillars in your next home design or renovation enables you to draw inspiration from Ancient Roman and Greek architecture, modern luxury hotels and spectacular palaces. The following types of natural stone can create breathtaking pillars for a glamorous entryway:

  • Limestone
  • Marble
  • Granite

Understanding Different Types of Stone for Houses

choosing the right type of natural stone

Choosing the right type of natural stone is essential for design, style, aesthetics and functionality. Consider how the following natural stone variations can enhance your home or your next client renovation:

Granite

Granite has a diverse color palette, allowing you to choose from various dark and light shades to best fit your design style. It also has more of a natural, raw look than alternative stone variations, and it can feature speckled or bold veining. This organic appearance makes granite perfect for an earthy aesthetic while still offering a high-end appearance.

Marble

Marble is known for its luxury and elegance. It comes in dark and light shades, and many designers use white marble to create a pristine, sophisticated look and brilliant natural light reflection. Darker marble helps create a more dramatic aesthetic and pairs well with metallic accents and modern fixtures.

Quartzite

Quartzite’s vibrant veining closely resembles marble, giving it a luxurious, elegant look with more of an organic, natural feel. These visual elements make it an excellent option for adding depth and character to a space.

Limestone

Limestone’s soft, subtle colors add warmth to a space, and its delicate, flowing veins are less pronounced than other natural stone variations. The subtle veining adds visual interest without overpowering a space, and its more consistent coloring makes it easier to create cohesive looks in designs and complement various styles. Limestone is a fantastic option if you want to create an understated, inviting atmosphere with a calming aesthetic.

Travertine

Travertine is a type of limestone with earthy tones for a warm, inviting aesthetic. Its porous nature creates unique textured surfaces with visible holes and natural imperfections. Travertine is a wonderful natural stone option if you want to create a charming atmosphere.

Dolomite

Similar to limestone, dolomite features delicate veining and soft colors. This highly versatile choice can complement classic and modern styles.

Shellstone

Shellstone features distinctive textured appearances due to embedded, fossilized shells. This natural organic quality is perfect for coastal aesthetics. Shellstone’s soft, warm tones integrate well with various color palettes and design styles.

Onyx

Onyx has a natural translucence, creating a stunning visual effect by letting light shine through. You can place it over backlights for a gorgeous glowing effect on a fireplace background or kitchen island. Onyx also has a slightly dramatic, exotic look and beautifully complements spaces with monochrome color schemes.

Quartz

Quartz is a manufactured stone that contains natural quartz, pigments and resin. It offers a wide range of customizable veining and color options, enabling you to create a consistent, uniform look.

Soapstone

Soapstone’s subtle veining and velvety soft appearance add warm, quiet luxury to a space. It also seamlessly integrates into various styles and designs.

How to Choose the Right Type of Stone

Consider the following elements when choosing natural stone for your next home upgrade or client project:

Style and Design

Before choosing natural stone elements, it’s essential to consider a home’s overall style and design aesthetic. Stone elements can complement your envisioned style when you know which colors and materials you will incorporate in the home.

For example, dark marble evokes an intimate, cozy aesthetic and pairs well with metallic and modern fixtures, such as gold chandeliers and stainless steel appliances. Lighter stone slabs, such as white marble, cream limestone or white dolomite, help invoke a soft, airy feeling.

Lighting

Consider how much natural lighting a space has before choosing natural stone. A light-colored stone’s surface reflects natural light to make a room brighter and appear larger. Choose lighter stone if you want to maximize a room’s natural light, or opt for darker stone if a room already lets in plenty of natural light.

Matte Versus Polished Finish

Depending on the type of natural stone you choose, you can select a polished or matte finish. A polished finish is glossy and reflective, bringing out the stone’s veining, color and depth. A matte finish provides a softer appearance and is more scratch-resistant.

Care and Functionality

Consider functionality and care needs before choosing a type of stone. Granite, dolomite, soapstone and quartzite are excellent options for high-traffic or high-use areas because of their low porosity. More porous natural stones, such as marble, are also excellent options if you maintain them with polishing, sealing and cleaning.

Stone Boutique's Natural Stone Selection Process

Stone Boutique offers a four-part stone purchasing process to help you experience the magic of selecting a once-in-a-lifetime slab for your next project. Our patented visualization room uses advanced technology to showcase our hand-sourced inventory, so you can effortlessly examine every slab in detail.

Once you choose your favorite slabs, we render your top selections into your custom design blueprints for a detailed, three-dimensional view of how your selected stone will look in the renovated space. You can visit our viewing area to inspect and approve your natural stone selections in person before making a purchase. Our technology sends your precise design specifications to your fabricator so they can turn your dreams into reality.

Enhance Your Home With Natural Stone From Stone Boutique

Natural stone can significantly enhance home elements such as countertops, flooring, hearths, fireplace backgrounds and cladding pillars.

Stone Boutique offers an efficient stone selection process, bringing you magnificent, rare natural stone slabs from around the world. Book an appointment or browse our natural stone inventory to find the perfect option for your design or renovation project.