Designer Difference: Granite and Onyx Features
Create a feature in your home with one of these standout stones, for a daring design that goes beyond the norm
Granite has become so common that it’s all too easy to forget its exotic origins. As natural stone benchtops shift from luxury trend to standard feature, selecting rare, exotic varieties and using them in eye-popping ways can allow homeowners and builders to make a common material feel fresh and exciting again.
Granite is one of the hardest natural stones, second only to diamonds, which makes it a natural choice for benchtops and even flooring. Still, when your slab looks like a piece of art, pressing it into service in such a functional way can feel so utilitarian. Commissioning it as a spectacular fireplace surround and matching floor tile inlay allows its beauty to reign over the decor, so that little else is needed.
Since it’s pricey, Azul Bahia will commonly be found playing a supporting role as a tile inlay in an exotic Mediterranean or Middle Eastern-styled bathroom.
Warm up your house with natural materials
Warm up your house with natural materials
It can also be used as an unexpected accent by the pool. The epoxy resin that’s often applied during the polishing process to fill in gaps in the stone can make the surface as slippery as honed marble, so take care when using it as flooring.
Beautiful Azul Bahia looks as stunning as part of an outdoor water feature as it does inside the bathroom as a shower surround.
Using a granite like Azul Bahia as a kitchen or bathroom benchtop may be an obvious application for the material, but nothing about this pop of ocean blue will seem predictable. It’s as soothing as the watery aquas that so many of us already love for the bathroom, but it adds a depth and luxury that’s hard to match.
Van Gogh granite, mined in Brazil and reminiscent of the colours in the artist’s Starry Night painting, is one of the most richly coloured natural granites on the market. It shines its brightest in small doses and amid solid-coloured decor, where it can act as a singular focal point.
Add some oomph with onyx
Pictured here in this divine New York, USA, bathroom is majestic violet onyx. Though it’s found on almost every continent, onyx is considered rare and not as hard as granite, so it’s more difficult to quarry intact and tends to be pricey as a result. (It’s more affordable and easier to find in smaller pieces.) Its relative softness means it will scratch and etch easily, like marble, but the subtle beauty of this trough sink couldn’t have been achieved with any other material.
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Pictured here in this divine New York, USA, bathroom is majestic violet onyx. Though it’s found on almost every continent, onyx is considered rare and not as hard as granite, so it’s more difficult to quarry intact and tends to be pricey as a result. (It’s more affordable and easier to find in smaller pieces.) Its relative softness means it will scratch and etch easily, like marble, but the subtle beauty of this trough sink couldn’t have been achieved with any other material.
See more of this bathroom
Taking a cue from renowned architect Mies van der Rohe, who famously installed a slab of onyx as an entire living room wall at Villa Tugendhat, British design firm Ogle engineered a freestanding slab of onyx fitted between two glass panels and held fast in a slot in the floor.
Bookmatching stone slabs by adjoining two to create a mirror image on either side is a relatively common practice in wall applications. Here, the barely perceptible seam lines up with the shower glass so that the tub is on one ‘page’ and the shower on the other.
Your builder or stone professional can backlight your onyx using specialised panels for full and even coverage, or by using a light tape that one popular backlighting company claims is as thin as a credit card and produces no heat.
A backlit breakfast bar will always be a showstopper.
Black Cloud onyx from Italy is one of the most extraordinary stones available. This bathroom showcases the material’s alluring cloud-like effect in translucent greys and creams. Another great candidate for backlighting and bookmatching, it’s especially effective as a large-scale wall treatment, where its natural splendour can be admired full-on.
Design firm Architectural Justice designed this backlit staircase in warm Honey onyx, with a coordinating marble handrail to complete the luxe look.
Add pizzazz to a boring staircase
Add pizzazz to a boring staircase
Large polished slabs aren’t the only, or even the best, scale for onyx, since it’s expensive and difficult to quarry in larger cuts. These green and red splashback tiles illustrate what is perhaps the most logical use of onyx in the home.
Here we see one more unique application of exotic natural stone, this time in Honey onyx. The tiles, mounted to a large pivoting door, look almost like smouldering embers against the sandstone walls.
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How would you use these standout stones in your home? Share your ideas in the Comments.
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Browse granite and onyx kitchen benchtops
TELL US
How would you use these standout stones in your home? Share your ideas in the Comments.
MORE
Browse granite and onyx kitchen benchtops
Azul Bahia, quarried in the state of Bahia in Brazil, is a semiprecious bedrock granite with a distinctive blue hue and extensive veining. As with most natural stone, the colouring will vary from piece to piece. Some slabs sport a hint of green or black, so it’s important to lay eyes on the exact piece you’re getting before it’s installed in your home.