FloorTalk – for all the latest flooring fashions

Submitted by Annette M. Callari, A.S.I.D.; CMG

No doubt you have heard the old adage “less is more” many times.  Never has it been more relevant to good design than now.  Have you ever been in a home where every surface was covered with accessories–every wall, every table, virtually, every horizontal and vertical surface available? Anyone who decorates like this may think they are showing their treasures off to their best advantage, but they couldn’t be more wrong.  Collections become clutter, and the assault on your visual senses leaves people feeling claustrophobic and restless.  Not to mention that you lose the beauty of the interior architecture altogether. 

Just recently, I attended a wedding at a multi-million-dollar estate.  The gentleman who owned the home was a world traveler and had the collections to prove it.  A collection of silver and crystal bells, a priceless collection of Faberge eggs, unusual letter openers, fine china from Ireland, hundreds of leather bound books, and the list goes on.  The home looked like a furniture store with curio cabinets lining every wall.  His collection of fine paintings ran the gamut from eye-level to the twenty-foot-high beamed ceilings.  His mammoth antique desk in the library was unusable because it was the showcase for his hundred-piece pipe collection.  I think you get the picture.  The bride barely made it down the sweeping staircase without her veil snagging some priceless artifact.

The lesson imbedded in this story is that this home had become a museum!  Each collection in its own right was valuable, but the impact was lost in the overall clutter they created.  Displaying several well-placed items (and rotating them with others in a collection) is a much better approach and underscores good design.  Look around your home.  If the building blocks of good design are indistinguishable among the “things”, it’s time to start streamlining your accessories. Over-peppering your interiors with bric-a-brac is unsettling and will rob a room of negative space (it’s the undecorated areas that calm your senses and offer visual relief). Make sure that your interiors showcase line, form, shape and space first and foremost.  The rest, in moderation, is just icing on the cake. Here are two images that drive the point home:

Uncluttered image: Line, shape and form emerge with fewer accessories, and the fireplace becomes the main attraction.

Cluttered image: Overdose of accessories takes away from the focal point of the room, which is the fireplace.

IS IT REAL OR ISN’T IT?  NEW “STONE” COLLECTION LAUNCHED
Submitted by Annette M. Callari, A.S.I.D.; CMG

Everyone knows Dal Tile is a leader in tile and stone products for the floors.  Now they have introduced an incredible new collection of manufactured stone products for your walls!!! This is being introduced as we speak, so products will be market-ready very shortly.

Each collection replicates natural rock, stone or bricks with amazing accuracy.  The advantage to exploring these new products is that they are lightweight versions of the real thing, come in at a cost savings while giving you the look of real stone.  Each stone is manufactured of Portland cement, lightweight aggregates, and mineral oxides for coloration.  The molds are cast from natural stone to get the most realistic man-made stone products possible.  The thickness of each stone ranges between 0.75 to 1.65” thick.  With the recommended installation mortar, finished thickness will be 1.25” to 2.65” depending on the style.

So where exactly could you apply these amazing stone looks?  Both interior and exterior applications are approved (residential and commercial), but remember, they are built for vertical installations.  Because they are lightweight and considered “veneer” manufactured stone, they are not appropriate for floors.  Sealing is recommended, of course, to prevent staining, especially in exterior applications where rust or dirt could penetrate the surface.  Dal Tile is backing these products with a 75-year warranty (with recommended installation procedures, proper care & maintenance).  That definitely tells you they have performance and confidence built right in.

Let’s talk about the aesthetics, which truly is the main attraction here.  The authenticity of these products exceeds expectations.  Ridged Field Stone, Grecian Limestone, Velvet River Rock, Sculpted Leger Stone—these are just a few of the collections available, and each one has the “wow” factor.  (Visit www.DalTilemanufacturedstone.com for a gallery of all the collections and more information.)

It is likely that you will not be able to tell the manufactured version of these stone products from the real thing, and that is a major accomplishment from a design standpoint.  But before you get too excited about every possible design scenario running through your mind, there are just a few non-recommended applications:

• No submerged water applications (pools, spas)
• No direct exposure to flames, coals or ashes
• No applications in contact with chemicals

Given those few parameters, the door is still wide open for you to get creative and put these stunning new products to use in a myriad of ways. So have fun, explore your options, and get creative!