There we were, swirling with excitement, designing room scenes for our soon-to-be released Chapter 18 – Rotunda. Hearts were racing as our design team came up with a concept for an entryway that we dubbed, “Glammy Miami.” It was to be striped using our Composition mosaic patterns in Dolomite and Calacatta Gold as per our schematics and inspiration board below.
This combination would have created a stunning, yet subtle wallpaper effect highlighting the versatility and design practicality of tile outside of a bathroom or kitchen. We couldn’t wait to debut this room scene in our catalog!
Unfortunately, it never made it. Why? What happened?
Although it looked great in the final photos, it was altered in a way that did not represent a proper installation. Despite our temptation to enhance this room scene using Photoshop, we felt there was a greater lesson to be learned from this installation.
If you have ever watched one of our Jeffrey Court University episodes, particularly one about a natural stone chapter, we include the following advisement:
“<<Chapter Name>> is a natural stone line. This means that, as with all natural stones, care should be taken to blend products from multiple cartons and laid out prior to installation to ensure a proper, uniform look. We also recommend installing using a high-quality, white thin set. Sealing natural stone is also highly recommended. We advise you seal before and after grouting using a penetrating sealer.”
The deeper meaning of this statement is three-fold:
Now, to tie it back to the Glammy Miami room scene—although we blended our tiles, we erred on items 2 and 3:
The moral of the story is this: When installing natural stones, always blend, always use white thinset, and always seal. Lesson learned.