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).
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!!!
This picture of Calacatta Gold 3×6″ Honed Backsplash from Instagram here is from July 2022.
The website where you can see this “incredible” makeover is here SimplySummerJenn it would have taken some over-ordering so you can select the look you want. If I wanted to re-create this backsplash I would over order by 20% possible 25% so I could pick through and create the exact look wanted. It did not install itself and it was not installed box-to-box like a ceramic. You are creating art with natural stone and you or the person you are working with then certainly the complexity of Calacatta Gold is not for you. Get it right, installed correctly and you have not just good but exceptional! Gold 🙂
I would recommend taking a look at the website for incredible pictures and a good read on a variety of subjects. This kitchen is a DREAM!
As with all our blog posts prices are subject to change (as eventually this post will become a decade old). This was posted during 2022 when inflation was impacting globally. Hopefully in the future inflation is under control again.
Yep. This is definitely a dream shower. Beyond a Five Start resort hotel.
It is an incredible installation glass doors yet to go on, but this does give us a better view of the marble. This is no accident in creating this masterpiece. The customer or installer (probably both) has placed the Venato 6×12″ Honed to spread out the veining to create the look they want. They added a Venato 1″ Hexagon honed to the two niches framed with the Carrara Venato 3/4″ honed pencil trim. (Nice touch)
This shows how well the marble matches when it is picked and packed by our marble experts no other company offers this service. That just one key difference to our business model. A USP to our business. We are not interested in huge volumes. We are focused on each individual customer as if these are our bathrooms.
This is not dumb packing at a 3rd party warehouse or low cost warehouse employees, these are skilled marble experts with decades of experience selecting the marble for your project. You are not ordering from people that have no access to the product. The actual product is right outside the door of our offices. We see it before it is shipped. We selected this lot. Our offices are not in some ivory tower with the marble in another state. Our product is all together with us under one roof. Very few companies operate this way.
A no frills marketing strategy helps keep our costs low. We do not have experts in marketing writing our blogs or taking pictures to the point that they are not realistic with the products our pictures are with an iPhone (not even the latest one). My English teacher would not have picked me to write this blog, but we do not want to pay for another resource. All resources are a cost. Costs have to be added to the square foot price of the product and in these inflationary times saving our customers money and perfect marble is more important to us than grammatical perfection. I am already making excuses for this post. Happy to change any mistakes if someone would point them out. Then we are all working together to keep the prices low 🙂
As with all our blog posts prices are subject to change (as eventually this post will become a decade old). This was posted during 2022 when inflation was impacting globally. Hopefully in the future inflation is under control again.
The incredible Carrara Venato used perfectly to create a shower classic instantly adding value to any home buying direct from the supplier The Builder Depot.
Not a complicated design but the 6×12″ has been arranged to maximum effect spreading out the veining and not just thrown on the wall box-to-box. Planning has paid off here.
The great thing I know about this shower, we can come back to this post in a decade and it will still look like a shower that I wish I had. That is when you know you have a great design. Timeless Classics. No need to ever remodel again (which once you have done it you do not want to do it again). This type of bathroom that sits in Hotels in London that have been around since the 1800’s or the Plaza in NYC with their timeless Carrara marble bathrooms. Installations over a hundred years ago and looks perfect today.
The bathroom will add value. Overtime the cost to create this same design will double, triple and so on. The design itself will not age and the owner gets to enjoy living in a 5 star hotel resort bathroom forever, all while the value of the bathroom appreciates in value. “Carrara Marble” bathroom is an incredible bonus feature when it comes to selling a home. Tomorrow or in fifty years.
Carrara Bianco Nero Strip Marble Mosaic (Free Shipping and around $23.95 Square Foot for Summer 2021…. could be $30.00 by 2022.. shipping costs, extracting perfect Carrara marble, this cost will never go down it is a finite resource a one of a kind natural product).
The picture above is the “after“. The real story is here on Carrie Bradshaw lied its an awesome website full of tips and tricks by someone that clearly has an eye for fashion (well worth following and reading along).
This shower is amazing. The installation is exceptional and the Italian marble fabulous. The use of the 4×12″ Carrara Honed is a great option as it gives it a different take on the traditional 3×6″ subway tile. I like it. In fact it is probably my favorite size for a shower. This grade of Italian marble however is becoming increasingly difficult to source, add in the Covid factor and finding perfect Italian marble is not an easy job. We are managing and managing to keep our customers supplied even in this challenging environment.
The niche…. Wow can we just take a moment to admire. Again impressive!
The Before (one of the pictures)
You really have to go to the blog to appreciate the work that went into this, it is a work of art. Tile is Art. You decide where the tiles go. How the veining should look. The Hexagon on the floor however that is art on another level, it is intricately designed. The gaps are exactly 1.5mm apart to create a non-slip surface without it looking like a floor or “grout”. The level of traction is perfectly designed for the size the Hexagon. My absolute favorite Mosaic, not just ascetically but also from a practical design point of view and rarely do these two meet 🙂
Nero Marquina has been making a comeback for some years now and we are not talking about the China Black from the “Big Box” retailers that is all glued together on the back as the Chinese try and hold together what is a defective product that they have no choice because the Big Box does not actually import direct and forces their suppliers to such low prices, something has to give and it is quality before price (apparently).
We are talking about premium Spanish Nero Marquina that has a subtle amount of white not the China black that looks someone has taken a white crayon to a black tile and destroyed it. Subtle white veining. Not over 50% white veining.
The perfect product from a cost perspective is buying a 2×12″ tile as a mosaic in a stacked form. Instagram provides a plethora of images of our Nero Marquina stacked. Some install it as is. Stacked. Some turn it on it’s side for a modern look and others cut each piece up and then they have perfect 2×12″ (perfect because it was cut and made to fit a mold). That makes… once cut a great product for installing however you want. Running Brick format or even the ever popular Herringbone.
I have to admit it. It is a gorgeous marble installed in a Herringbone format. Sleek, narrow, perfect and because it is purchased on a sheet as a stacked mosaic you get a lot more 2×12″ pieces that you do with trying to buy it already formatted as a Herringbone. Herringbone leaves a lot of empty space in a box; 40% more actually. Agreed there is some extra work cutting them up but saving 40% worth consideration 🙂
Screenshot from our Nero Marquina page where the Basketweave can be found (prices on this blog post are valid through to Fall 2019). The website will have the most current and up to date prices.
Finally here again is the beautiful 2×12″ Nero Marquina this time the Honed version used as a backsplash. Dramatic… not too much. Just right. Great designs.
The fine print: Prices valid thru Fall and hopefully winter 2019. The Builder Depot website always has the most up-to-date prices and overrides all prices from blog posts which as we have been around for now decades can be pretty old posts. Over time be thousands of posts from ten to fifty years ago. Prices will change unless someone can stop inflation.
My best explanation: Carrara Bianco is the most traditional of all Carrara products. It is what you see at every showroom in North America. Carrara Venato is whiter based has tiles that are blank with no veining. You can see Carrara Venato below in the 4″ Hexagon Mosaic. If you look at the marble, some of the mosaics and some of the tiles are completely white. This creates a whiter, brighter look.
Carrara Pietra was created for people that wanted Carrara Venato but wanted it with more veining. So we added more “life” tiles with more veining. It is a great looking marble and a great price point.
The post can be seen on Instagram here: Jenny Hollander also good resource for questions about grout color, etc.
It is also called the following, Atlas, Taza, Medina and on and on with lots of names for the same Encaustic Cement Tile….. just to really help customers (let’s all agree one name….. but sadly that would not work as our price of $10.95 a Square Foot with Free Shipping (thru 2019) is the lowest in the market).
Everyone can make Cement Tile it is then simply a question of how efficient you are at supplying the consumer and not many are very efficient – but will give you a) A lower price then charge you huge amount of freight or b) Price the product by the piece for example $6.70 then you have to multiply that by 2.25 to get the “Real Cost Per Square Foot” which is at $6.70 a piece $15.07 a Square Foot”. It is just “Click Bait”).
The marble is stunning. Background as white as Calacatta Gold, you will never find a marble with such consistency from product to product, from field tile to mosaic to trim….. not just saying that because it is ours. You can see how white the base is of the 4×12″ Carrara and the Arabesque framed above the stone against the white door. We all know the color of a white door. That is a good reference point to how white based our Carrara Venato collection truly is. Exceptionally white. Probably the whitest based marble in the world and it is a Trademarked product only sold online through The Builder Depot 🙂
Simple Elegance. Carrara Venato 3×6″ Subway Tile for $9.95 a Square Foot available in Honed or Polished part of a collection of marble in various sizes, mosaics and trims. Carrara Venato.
You cannot underestimate the power of simplicity. Okay….. the tile is spectacular and whomever installed it did a great job picking and placing the tile. So there are two forces at work to create this wonderful backsplash.
A beautiful kitchen. Not complex in its design and will always be popular Carrara Marble dates back to the Roman era it was popular then. It is popular today. It will always be popular because every single tile is unique and every backsplash is different.
The veining is natural and unlike a porcelain or ceramic pattern does not repeat every six tiles. Which once you know that is how they make it. The pattern is a repeating pattern you start to spot the repeats. They may rotate the tile to help to make it a little different but ultimately you will see it and count them. Well I would but I think I have some sort of OCD. 🙂
This kitchen makes me think of Spring. Have a wonderful March everyone. Here to Spring finally arriving!!
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