When it comes to marble flooring designs, the sky’s the limit. Marble comes in a range of colors, so you can choose anything from traditional white to a beautiful red or even green. While a solid color looks spectacular in any space, you can also make your home more attractive by creating impressive patterns on your floor. Chessboard patterns are always popular, but you can go so much further by mixing the colors and letting your creative side shine through.
1. Optical Illusions and Spirals
Have fun with a large, open space by creating a spiral on the floor. One of the great features of marble is that it’s reasonably easy to cut and work with. Take the spiral from one of the corners of the room, and gradually decrease the size of the curving line until it vanishes in the center. This pattern works best with contrasting colors that will stand out sharply from each other.
You can keep better control over the design by drawing it out on the floor first. Once the spiraling line is in place, fill in the balance with your contrasting color. Leave the space open to keep the attention on the optical illusion or put a small table right over the center to finish off the focal point. This can help make a formal space more inviting while taking a casual space and giving it a more impressive look.
2. Quilt It
If you want something that’s impressive yet easy to create, then go with the quilted look. This simple pattern uses a large stones of light colored marble, such as the Bianco Dolomiti, mixed with tiny squares of dark granite. The tips of each marble tile are trimmed back before the tiles are set in a diamond pattern. The open squares created by the cut tips are filled in with small, square mosaic tiles. This brings the attention to the point of the tiles and starts to define the quilted look. The entire pattern is finished off with a dark grout that closely matches the granite. Filled into the 1/8- or 1/4-inch gaps between all the tiles, it will create the look of a sewn line. This is a subtle pattern that can be used in any room to enhance the visual appearance without overwhelming the space. If you choose marble with heavier veining, the dark grout lines will also serve to balance the veining and give the space a sophisticated look.
3. The Tile Rug
You can create almost any type of pattern using different colors of marble tiles. When you turn the center of a room into a fascinating combination of colors, you’ll create the optical illusion of an area rug, but you’ll still have the low maintenance of natural stone. Use a mixture of colored marble to create a starburst surrounded by a ring of color at the outer points. Work with an area artist to create a floral mosaic that will be filled in with marble tiles. The tile rug can be any shape you need, including oval, circular, or long runners that will fill out cavernous areas or outline furniture that will be placed in the center of the room. Most tile rugs are finished off with a sharply contrasting border at the edge of the pattern to clearly define the space and mark a smooth transition to the rest of the tile floor. If you’re nervous about creating your own centerpiece, then consider going with a tile medallion. These mosaic masterpieces are pre-designed and cut so that you just have to set them in place and then finish the floor around them.
4. Shapes and Sizes
Most natural stone tiles come in large squares, but you can also get marble in long strips. Consider mixing the different sizes of squares and rectangles to create your own fantastic patterns. One option is to use rectangular tiles that are in equal in length to the sides of your squares. Surround each square marble tile with sharply contrasting colors, leaving the corners open. You can then fill in the corners with a third color or one that closely matches the largest marble squares. The end pattern will resemble a picture frame, and it’s very impressive. You can also offset two different sizes of squares to develop a fun pattern that adds interest and style to any part of your home. If you want an impressive look but want to simplify the project, then consider using your rectangular tiles to create a border going all the way around the room.
5. Enlarge the Look
One of the most simple patterns you can make involves four different colors and an enlarged pattern. Use soft Vanilla Oro tiles, the deep shades of Rojo Alicante, the brown shades in Adalia Cappuccino and the soft shades in Crema Bella to develop an appealing pattern ideal for a large space. Rather than setting each tile in place alone, combine four of them to create a larger block. Alternate the blocks of colors across the room to introduce more color and give it visual appeal. You can also use the alternating colors to add stripes, borders, or interlocking patterns in your floor.
Here at Nalboor, we believe that marble can add an elegant and sophisticated look to any home. We don’t want to see you settle for one simple color when you can get creative and give your space a more impressive look with amazing designs and patterns. Some, like the spiral, may be best left to the professionals. Others, such as the tile rug, may require the services of a skilled artist. However, there are many wonderful designs that you can create on your own by playing with the colors and drawing the patterns out on paper. You’ll make your home stand out with the creative additions, and you’re sure to love how you can make any space more impressive. Contact us today to review our available inventory and see how we can help you create a more impressive living space.