marble Archives - Aalto® Marble Inlay

Decorative Marble Inlay Steam Shower

August 6, 2019/in News /by Annie Aalto

Our client Edward desired a shower unlike any other to act as the focal point of his master-bath renovation. The rest of his home’s interior is beautifully adorned with custom JP Weaver moldings, and appointed with all the details you would expect in an ornate, classical interior.

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To begin the creative conversation, Edward showed us the moldings he had chosen for the rest of the bathroom space, and described that he was looking for something unique in both color and layout. He was drawn to our Riviera collection of water-jet mosaics, which features striking accents of light blue contrasted with saturated gold tones. Edward wished the pattern of the marble mosaic to encompass the ceiling, wall, and floor of the shower. He also wanted marble wainscoting of a similar style for the toilet room.

With this information, our design team rendered Edward’s shower and supplied him with a sample of each stone to be used in the inlays. This inlay-marble shower design is made from Crema Marfil, Jerusalem Gold, Inca Gold, Honey Onyx, Caribbean Blue, and Celeste Blue. Edward hired local craftsman Master Tile to install the shower-wall design.

Designing Custom Marble Inlay From Client References

July 9, 2019/in News /by Annie Aalto

Custom designs in marble inlay can be created from your reference. These one-of-a-kind designs will never be replicated and, as such, add a truly luxurious and exclusive touch to your interior or exterior project. Our illustrators specialize in interpreting artwork or photographs in natural stone. This is a twofold process: Firstly, the line art is created to best exemplify the reference. Then, the natural stone colors are applied to replicate the tones of the reference.

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Many artworks from a temple’s archives are replicated in solid natural stone to achieve the same permanence as the building in which they are displayed. Here, small sections of these murals and floor medallions show you the level of detail that can be achieved by the artist’s hand directing the water jet.

Here, an Art Nouveau print is reimagined in stone inlay for a customer’s wine room. This petite medallion is both graphic and representational.

Religious icons are created here in marble inlay. Depth and detail can be achieved by using a full palette of stone colors and by carefully selecting each section of stone. When we create murals or direct interpretations of reference, the artist who drew your design also selects each section of stone from which it is cut.

Custom Tivoli Medallion

July 7, 2019/in News /by Annie Aalto

Our classically inspired Tivoli marble inlay medallion is reimagined in a long rectangle with an added ring border for an event space in New Jersey. Here, we lay out the completed design in our shop to ensure a precise fit once it arrives at the job site. Contact us to discuss adding luxury marble inlay to your commercial project.

Venetian Collection Foyer Floor–Workshop Fit

June 24, 2019/in News /by kevindevin

Our final step is to dry fit your entire floor in the workshop to ensure a precise fit on the job site. Here, a classically inspired foyer floor, from our Venetian Collection, for a client in New York. Intricate floral swags balance the strong geometric of the multi-color border of rich tones. The Venetian collection works beautifully in both small and large spaces, giving any room luxuriant appeal.

BLUE! Natural Stones for Interior Spaces

May 20, 2019/in News /by Annie Aalto

Few colors make as royal and striking an impact as blue. Natural blue stone very rarely forms in a volume large enough to use for architectural spaces. Some, such as Sodalite and Lapis Lazuli, are widely used in jewelry but can also be used to great effect in flooring, walls, and countertops.

Sodalite was first documented in 1811 in Greenland and is now mined in Canada and the U.S. Smaller deposits exist in Brazil, Bolivia, Portugal, Romania, Burma, Russia, Namibia, and Italy. For our use in the architectural field, Aalto typically sources Sodalite from Brazil, as it has the super-saturated royal blue tones that we are looking for.

Here are a few examples of slabs of Sodalite that we have used for past projects. In some cases, we use only small areas of the slab to create the designs; in others, we can use almost the whole slab.

Here, the rich tones of Sodalite are accented by the saturated hues of other natural stones in burgundy, grey and gold.

Another blue that we love to use in our designs is Lapis Lazuli. Lapis forms in smaller sections of blue and, as such, is pieced together to create the larger sections that we use in our flooring. Lapis has been used since antiquity. The Sar-i Sang mine in Afghanistan has been mined since the seventh century and is still the main source of Lapis today. Lapis can also be found in Russia, Chile, Italy, Mongolia, the U.S., and Canada.

Here, you can see some examples of inlay work by Aalto using Lapis Lazuli.

There are also other, more cost effective blues in lighter shades that are Quartzite and Onyx. These also look very beautiful when paired with other marbles.

Caribbean Blue