White marble – when will it end?
It’s not that I don’t like white marble, whether it’s carrara or calacatta or your variety of choice, I think it’s a stunning material. I just want everybody else to stop using it, so that when it’s time for me to create my dream kitchen by the sea, the material will seem fresh and new and as if was the first person ever to think of it. Nothing selfish in that, is there?
White and fresh via StyleatHome
When exactly did this white/grey marble become so mainstream? Is anybody out there a historian of carrara? I know it has been used for surfaces since before the Romans, and has remained a classic ever since. But this last six or eight years have seen a huge increase in its popularity, and now it’s riding high at the crest of a huge wave. And the trouble with wave crests is that eventually they come crashing down. Most trends in interiors seem to have about a 10 year life (though maybe a much longer half-life) Does that mean we shouldn’t use carrara or calacatta at anymore? I wouldn’t say that, (unless you would all be so kind as to leave it all for me, that’d be OK, too).
Calacatta d'Oro - done with panache
What you need to do when you’re at the crest of a wave and the laws of physics are about to dump you on the rocky shore is obviously to crank out a nifty bottom turn and head back over the lip while you still can, so you’ll be back in the line-up ready to catch the next set. I’m no surfer (as you can tell) but in design terms that means don’t avoid the material, but do avoid the now predictable uses of it that you now see absolutely everywhere – you know what I mean:
White subway tile with Carrara marble
This is a great material, we just need to find more individual and interesting ways to use it. Different cabinet styles and finishes, different colors, new textures – while there’s no such thing as truly timeless design, if your kitchen is shaped to fit your personality and lifestyle, it’s going to fit you comfortably for a lot longer than if you just copy the trendy formula from a magazine.
Macassar by Smallbone - The Kitchen Directory
Including the kitchen sink - Smallbone via The Kitchen Directory
What do you think – has carrara already peaked? Will we all be tired of it in four years time, or will it still be brightening the pages of all our design magazines?
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Thanks for that link Betty, I’d like to move in there right now. And Paul, I’m up for the tour – I think those Tour by Private Jet people need some more publicity, don’t you?
I’ll go on a grand tour. Now we need to find a vendor to pay for it…
Do you reckon he even thought about the kitchens, Paul? Isn’t it miserable how none of the beautiful books show you the kitchens of these places? Now I want to see the kitchens at Peterhof, Pena, Peles, Stolzenfels, and all the rest. Grand tour, anyone? (Oh alright, trip to flckr instead if I must)
Mein gott in himmel Betty! I had no idea that the kitchen in Neuschwanstein were open to the public. Der Märchenkönig had good taste!
Hi Laurie, I love simple – wasn’t there something that Coco Chanel said, about looking in the mirror before leaving the house and always removing one accessory? I’m going to have to look that up, it would be very appropriate to kitchens, too.
For those interested, I found a pretty good picture of the white marble “counter” tops in the kitchen in Neuschwanstein:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tk_five_0/2250230798/
That’s the thing…good design is timeless. I think when remodels go wrong is when they try too hard with too many details. That’s when a gorgeous material like marble winds up looking like a tramp with too much makeup on. I am a fan of the less is more approach in design.
I think white carrera marble is timeless. Living in Munich we take many visitors to the Neuschwanstein castle built in the 1880′s. And in that kitchen many of the worktops especially in the “baking” area of the kitchen are carrera marble. I walked into that kitchen and thought, this is a dream kitchen today just as it was in 1880. Lot’s of gorgeous copper pots etc. Speaking of copper pots, another timeless kitchen is Julia Child’s housed in the Smithsonian. Looking at the lovely pale green cabinets and butcher top counters, that kitchen is just as workable and beautiful today as in the 60′s when her husband designed it. My brother and his wife put in white marble in their kitchen remodel in Portland, OR and that was 12 years ago. Still looks great, not dated at all!
Hi Sugar – I guess it either means we shouldn’t try to plan too far ahead, or if we still love the look when we can eventually do our dream kitchens, then it’s survived the trendy phase and become classic and enduring. The test of time, literally!
Laurie – now I’m intrigued to know what your secret favorite is. You’re right though, by the time I’m ready for my dream kitchen I’ll probably be in love with something completely different. That’s the way fashion works, isn’t it? It”’ be interesting to see what the next major trend is… I wouldn’t like to make a guess
I know what you mean Paul – maybe it’s a Southern Ocean wave that’s just going to keep circling the globe forever, unimpeded by land masses. A bit of tumbling foam at the crest every now and then, but it never actually breaks…
Hi Rich – I couldn’t agree more. It freaks me out a little when I go to the stone yard and see slabs of stone that were quarried somewhere like India or Brazil with a “Made in Italy” label on – does that mean they’ve been shipped from origin to Italy and then back to California?
Incidentally in my current kitchen I have nice honest locally made concrete…. damn the torpedoes indeed
Ugg. I feel exactly the same way. I am currently obsessed with farmhouse sinks, marble and butcher block counter tops with an island. But I am years away from getting my dream kitchen.
I love that quote from Rich! Who knows, maybe when you are ready to order your own counter material you will have already moved on to another stone that suits you. Plus, there are really so many colors in marble, even shades of white marble, that it is really impossible, at least it is for me, to grow tired of it. My all time favorite marble color is xxxxxxxx. I x’d it out because I don’t want others stealing my color too!
I can only hope that it lingers forever. Few things fire my imagination the way marble does.
I like this statement a lot:
“…while there’s no such thing as truly timeless design, if your kitchen is shaped to fit your personality and lifestyle, it’s going to fit you comfortably for a lot longer than if you just copy the trendy formula from a magazine.”
This sums up good design – what I like to refer to as “appropriate design” – as opposed to shoehorning a certain look into a room just because everyone else is doing it. So what? If the kitchen is the most used, most individualized, most expensive, most detailed room in the home, shouldn’t it be most reflective of the dwellers within?
It would be nice if the movement toward more natural, honest ingredients in our food sources would transfer to the food prep areas as well: there’s a credibility gap between an organic, locally grown salad that’s been prepared in an over-the-top French Empire kitchen. At least I think so.
So… if you want the Carrara marble in your own dream kitchen and it fits you, wear it like a wetsuit (continuing the surf analogy, poorly…). Damn the torpedoes.