Incredible bathroom design and the before and after…. Brilliant!

Italian Carrara Bianco 12×12″ Honed perfectly matched with Italian Bardiglio Gray 12×12″ Honed…. never have too much Italian marble. The price will only ever go up and it will never go out of style.

Bardiglio 12×12″ and Bianco 12×12″ Honed…. Harlequin bathroom perfection by @athomewithalysia pictured on Instagram. It’s a great IG site with brilliantly designed rooms and the Pyramid Style napkins are a nice touch along with other videos (well worth checking out).

Most importantly with design renovation is the “before and after” everyone’s fan favorite and this does not hold back or consume 30 minutes getting there. It’s just amazing: Check out this  post with Bardiglio Gray 12×12″ and Bianco 12×12″ Honed marble tile before and after pictures.

Collection of Bardiglio Gray can be found online here.

Carrara Venato with Bardiglio Gray for a Softer take on the Harlequin

Perfectly installed and designed By Valerie Wheeler and it is called on her blog an English Kitchen Reveal

Bardiglio Gray Marble Sold here. Carrara Venato for the Bright white look to best enhance the room sold here.

Historically the Gray and White Harlequin is found in Europe South of the Italian Alps and the North is predominantly black and white. This is simply Geography. The Bardglio Gray used here and sold online at The Builder Depot is from Italy. The black Tile is Nero Marquina from Spain.

The Gray and white is subtle easy-on-the-eye look. The very best thing is that even when you go into Buildings in Europe that are over 500 years old with this floor, it still looks great. Therefore you never have to worry about remodeling in your lifetime! This is not a floor that will go out of fashion because it is steeped in so much history.

Calacatta Gold. Timeless. Stately. Refined.

Premium Calacatta Gold 5″ Hexagon Mosaic framed with thin strips of Marble. Legacy marble. Almost impossible to find this level of perfection. A slab of this quality costing over $20,000 a cubic foot and that is still in the mountain. Create a no frills marketing strategy and remove all middlemen we can deliver at a price others cannot without having to compromise on quality. (PS…. that’s how the competition competes they lower the quality, do not actually buy Italian Calacatta Gold or reduce the size and sell by the piece).

Calacatta Gold Backsplash.

Available online from The Builder Depot Calacatta Gold Collection (Price may change as this price reflects the price at the time of this post).

Harlequin Black and White Checked Marble Floor

Carrara Venato 12×12″ Polished and Nero Marquina 12×12″ Polished.

Carrara marble from the The Builder Depot helps create the luxury of Harlequin marble flooring without the cost by ordering direct from the quarries. From European Palaces to our homes it exudes luxury that reflects the ever increasing value of our homes and the important position they have in our life capturing so many memories. That’s a bit blah, blah, blah content. Quite frankly this look has been amazing the heck out of people for literally centuries and still does today. Look at these floors… WOW!!!

One of the most well known Harlequin floors is that of the famous Grand Trianon at the Palace of Versailles. This is best known as King Louis XIV’s rural getaway is perhaps most closely associated with Queen Marie-Antoinette. When the King decided to replace the disintegrating porcelain tile in the Trianon, he upgraded to Carrara Marble and Nero Marquina ensuring that the floor tile would last well beyond his lifetime. (Bit more historical fluffy content).

Classic and Modern….. Marble!

This is a simple design and using just three products. Carrara Bianco 6×12″ Honed, Nero Marquina 5/8″ Mosaic to create border on the right and around Carrara Venato 1×1″ Square Mosaic offering a brighter look to stand out around the shower.

While I cannot see the top of the shower, it would be nice if it also has the rain shower head on the top.

You can design classic and modern. Get the design right and you never have to worry about remodeling again…. my biggest fear! I would hate to have the “pink” bathroom tiles that I see getting ripped out of 1980’s homes, someone paid to install those and thought “what an awesome design… nope”. Or tiles with Vegetables on them in the kitchen.

Yet I have seen bathrooms with Carrara marble dating back to Roman times (and they are still impressive). Even less extreme examples over history the Carrara Marble bathrooms in the Plaza NYC and many other historical hotels across London dating back to the 1890’s.

Bathrooms over 100 years old and still looking beautiful…. and the traffic through these hotels over 100 years, yet the marble looks incredible.

That is what I want. Classic. Durable. Stand test of time. Never remodel again. A forever bathroom!!!

Bianco Carrara Collection…. lot matching.

Start of the lot matching process for an order mixed of many products

Adding more products per customers instructions

Another angle (why not very happy with this match)

I just loved the veining on this Bianco Carrara 3×6″ honed…. time for a close up 🙂

Our Bianco Carrara Collection; Customers place orders for bathrooms with multiple products on the order. This is normal for us and we inventory our own products in the same location we are communicating to you about your order.

We own our warehouse and our office is located in the same facility. This allows us access to the products. While this does not seem like a big deal…. it is! Most online companies (over 95%) do not have access to their inventory. They are either drop shipping or using a 3PL (third party warehouse). This has a huge number of problems, here are just two:

#1. Drop Shipping or using a 3PL warehouse to ship marble does not work because no one will check your order to see if it lot matches. It will just be packed by someone that an hour ago was packing tennis shoes, or T-Shits, they have no skill in natural stone. They are not trained to even look inside the box.

#2. The return policy will be painful. It is painful regardless this is marble it is heavy but a company that does not ship from its own facility will have huge penalties for returns 30-40% of the order, because the 3PL location cannot process it. It will just get thrown away and your penalty is the company simply writing it off and throwing it away.

We like to spend time going through lots and sometimes we achieve the impossible with a natural product. Here we have 18×18″ Carrara Bianco Honed, Bianco Carrara 3×6″, Baseboard Honed, Basketweave with Bardiglio dot, Herringbone 1×2″, Basketweave border along with 2×4″ Nero Marquina. The matching of this collection of Bianco products is excellent. A third party warehouse cannot do this. It cannot send you pictures.

This selection will create an impressive bathroom.

Reviews…. More than a Decade of chasing excellence.

There are many more. Pages of them! If you have read all these and would like more please email sales@thebuilderdepot.com

Cement Tile. Carrara Tile – The never aging trend.

Atlas Black used on the front of this Countertop. Stunning (our marble 4×12″ Venato for $9.95 a Square Foot along with Arabesque picture frame used as a border). Stunning Kitchen posted to our IG feed (take a look to see questions).

If you are an avid follower of design trends, or frequently spend your time on Pinterest or Instagram looking for the hot and charming trends, then it is safe to say that you might have come across some beautiful looking patterned tiles now and then. From kitchen floors to bathrooms and laundry rooms, these patterned tiles offer an appealing outlook to any floor.

Several of the patterned tile you’ve set eyes online and social media is Encaustic Cement Tile. It perfectly encapsulates the essence of a vintage tile. This tile like other Handmade Cement Tile has been making waves in Europe for quite some time now, but only just gained prominence and popularity in the US only in the last couple of years. What makes it an attractive Cement Tile is its alluring matte finish and the smooth, silky feel of its body.

We can rave about the amazing qualities of Encaustic Cement Tile all day and not be tired, and indeed it’s an integral part of The Builder Depot line up of products their Cement Tile collection. The Builder Depot is the only Google Trusted Store and the highest ranking store in the Tile and Stone Industry as a whole not just in the Cement Tile Industry

As well as the only company that ships from its own warehouse which it owns, giving us complete control over QC checks prior to it being loading onto the truck.The competition well…. They are all 3PL a 3rd Party ships their orders at a high price (that is a person simply scanning an order and putting a box on a pallet, no checking, fast as possible, then move onto other orders in the Air Conditioning section) 3PL’s stock multiple product types.

The Competition tries to sneak around their higher cost structure by selling online as cost per piece for example $6.95 is all the customer will see. But to get to the square foot price you have to multiply that by 2.25.

An example of pricing per piece (FYI. The only flooring product that is sold by the piece). $6.95 x 2.25 = $15.64 per Square Foot. So you do have to watch this tricky maneuver, to make you buy before you think. Whereas we are $10.95 a Square Foot and Free Shipping.

The Builder Depot works on massive economies of scale, a no debt business, pays cash upfront for the product (which ensures the highest quality – no one wants to loose a cash paying account). Along with a no frills marketing strategy, that keeps our costs down, along with no fixed costs. Instead of keeping this extra margin, we pass it onto the consumer. Pricing in 2019 for our Handmade Encaustic Cement Tile (made with the highest grade of Cement; Portland cement) is $10.95 a Square Foot and Free Shipping.

The competition does not have (and this is to warn not poke holes)

• Their own a warehouse
• Have a review policy (We are the only Google Trusted Store in this industry)
• An address shown on their website, very few. (as it is operated out of their home, nothing wrong with that but at least get a mailbox).
• No return policy (read their policy if you can find it in the lines and lines of waffle).
• Why you might ask? So they can collapse overnight and you cannot come after them for the sub-par Cement Tile they sold you. They have no assets. They will simply hide behind their LLC and you cannot take their 3PL that is not theirs. The inventory will be gone before you can say “But Lawsuit…..”

However: This well-designed Handmade Cement Tile still has a couple of drawbacks on its own. So let’s discuss those.

It is very similar to marble. As a Cement Tile, it  can stain if acidic liquids like wine are just left to sit. It is handmade and can be more susceptible to wear than any other tile (depending on the quality you purchased, from a small company with no history he will be buying the cheapest tile possible. Shipping from a 3PL (3rd Party Location and close up shop and hide behind his LLC as everyone is left with terrible tile, company has no assets, that is why they are all 3PL shippers).

It needs to be re-sealed as required better sealer quality less often. It does share very close similarities with marble. But some of these drawbacks could be a blessing in disguise. These “imperfections” are what makes the Encaustic Cement Tile perfect, and you know what, because the color and pattern of the tile are usually bold, when they wear or fade, their beauty will even come out the more. So, like fine wine, the Encaustic Cement Tile gets better with age.

Prices subject to change at anytime. The website has the most up to date pricing but we try and keep some stability. Ordering a sample for example. That locks your price in for 30 days from when you ordered the sample gives you time to decide without the rush. (Sorry lawyers want this caveat added to anything with pricing).

Carrara Venato 1×3″ Herringbone Mosaic Tile

Carrara Venato 1×3″ Herringbone Mosaic Tile available in Honed and Polished $14.95SF

Here is the Venato Carrara 1×3″ Herringbone Honed, installed in a spectacular bathroom. In the background is our Brilliant white 3×6″ glass tile (for $9.95 in 2016) so it gives you some perspective of how incredibly white based this product actually is. It really is the whitest tile I have ever seen and so consistent, you cannot see where one sheet of mosaic ends and another begins.

Updating the same page this image above is added on August 12th 2016. This shows the Carrara Venato 1×3″ Herringbone Polished. I like looking back at it historically, there has been no change in the product in two years. That is consistent!

Another image. This is an order for a customer shipping out in August 2016. You can see how consistent the quality of the Venato Carrara 1×3″ Honed has been kept over the months and years.

2023 and another picture of the Carrara Venato 1×3″ Herringbone.

Time flies!!! Still taking pictures. The consistency of this collection spans over a decade and is amazing. This is due to the quality control system we have in place with massive 30FT sample boards at the quarry. Simple enough strategy the product has to match the sample board. Keep it simple works! If it matches the sample board then it meets the classification to fit this high-quality collection. The density of the product along with the feel of the finish is carefully inspected as well. Artisans with decades of experience carefully select the best blocks to meet the requirements improving efficiency and reducing waste keeping cost efficiencies for the consumer.

Here to stay!

Alpharetta, GA. 5920 Shiloh Road East: Finally it is completed. More space at last!

I like this side the best. This is showing seven loading docks, this goes on for fifteen. A ramp for loading local pickups and plenty of space for UPS Trucks.