How to choose a stone countertop

The use of a single stone countertop in a deespichno-laminate kitchen interior transforms the atmosphere in the house beyond recognition. Households seem to find themselves in the world of the Middle Ages, where men feel like knights, and the hostess is Queen Guinevere. A good stone countertop obliges you to a solid and measured pace of life, where there is no noisy bustle, anxiety and excitement. The host (King Arthur) and the hostess (Guinevier) respectfully partake of the food, transforming the process of eating into an art of high style.

The stone countertop radiating coldness and austerity sets the tone and style for all kitchen paraphernalia. There is no place for pottery and wooden spoons with roosters. A mountain of unbreakable plates and plastic jugs cannot lie on such a tabletop. In short, the kitchen countertop is the queen. What a queen – so are her loyal subjects.

How to choose a countertop? Line and color play a decisive role in interior design. A perfectly flat edge of the table top is the high art of stone processing. Even in ancient Rome, stone-cutters-slaves were able to manually process the stone with the help of simple adzes and trojans, achieving amazing results in polishing an absolutely flat edge of countertops. Modern stone processing equipment allows processing slabs with a tolerance of 0.1 mm. At furniture exhibitions in Cologne and Milan, a variety of granite, marble, basalt and sandstone countertops are presented. But out of a hundred absolutely flat countertops, you can choose at most two or three, in which the straight line is really impeccable and correlated with the world standards of high art. Only a sophisticated designer can give a correct assessment – an architect who has commissioned more than a dozen projects.

The situation with color is more complicated. Domestic deposits: the Urals, Siberia, Karelia, Altai are not so rich in a wide palette of colors and a variety of natural stone patterns. Basically, this is a simple gradation by color scheme: gray, red, green, black, white; and their derivatives: gray – red, greenish – white, black – red, etc. But the Adriatic coast (Italy, Greece) is rich in deposits of such stones, where the gradation of color and pattern has up to a hundred names of red: Balmorel Red, Jill Tau, Red Carmen, Purple – scarlet, etc..

The color of the stone depends on the constituent minerals: quartz (gray grains), feldspar (pink and white) and mica (black). So, for example, potassium feldspars paint the stone blue. But the special beauty of the pattern of the countertop (stone), similar to a breccia mosaic, is created by nodules, nodules, senaria, stains, blotches, veins. And the more intricate they are, the more expensive this stone is. Not everyone can afford a jasper countertop. But look at these fantastic images, fireworks of natural fantasy, space landscapes, ornate river floods.

It is necessary to choose the color of the stone to match the facade of your kitchen. Most often it is beige-gray (Kibik-Cordon), white-gray (Bianco Carara), red-gray (Kapustyansky), pink-beige (Rose of Portugal), green (Green Tinos). Less often – black (Gabro) and white (Thassos White). Although it all depends on the tastes of the household. The worktop, successfully matched in color to the main color scheme, brings a sense of monumentality, stability and confidence in the future..

If you have dined at a stone table at least once, the polished surface of which reflects the sparkle of your interlocutor’s happy eyes, you will want to repeat this meal an infinite number of times until your grandchildren inherit this family heirloom. Of course, it (the relic) in a hundred years will fade, get scratched, but at the same time it will only acquire antique value. In addition, modern chemicals can restore its luster to a mirror image. Chips and scratches can be easily repaired with a wax crayon of the same color as the countertop. To do this, melt it in a flame and drop it onto the damaged area, let it cool for 30 – 40 minutes, then cut off the protruding excess part with a thin blade. After that, you need to sand the surface with a flannel or woolen cloth (during sanding, the quality of gloss depends). In no case should you use sandpaper or other untested chemical methods. By doing this, you will completely ruin her. Better to invite a specialist, and he will do everything in the best possible way.

Above we talked about solid minerals: granite, balsate, diabase, diorite. Marble does not belong to this group of minerals. Marble countertops are more capricious and delicate in everyday life. They should be treated more carefully. They may have red wine stains if you do not wash them off in time..

And the countertops made of dolomite, sandstone, and marbled limestone are completely unfairly forgotten. Round and oval yellow dolomite outrigger dining tables are very popular in Western Europe this season. On a fine autumn evening, such a table on the veranda or under a canopy is an integral part of the evening tea feast. A dining table made of a brecciated conglomerate strewn with mosaic stone plaques will bring a festive mood to the most dull group of friends.

And finally, the most expensive and most exquisite mosaic countertop. Russian masters create their own kind of plastic mosaic, which is called Russian all over the world. This technique involves the creation of a pattern or ornament based on one stone – SYNSCH, malachite, lapis lazuli. If the Florentine mosaic was used to decorate small fragments of the interior and create pictorial miniatures, then in Russia mosaic acquired a wider range of applications. An infinite number of abstract ornaments, the richest in color, are captured on the tabletop, as well as a realistic image of objects – birds, butterflies, shells, flowers, fruits, landscapes and still lifes, genre scenes and compositions on biblical subjects.

There is no doubt that over time, Florentine and Russian mosaics will become the same family jewels as silverware, porcelain or jewelry of ancestors. With these works of art, a piece of the soul of the artist who created them will enter your home. And more than once, descendants will remember with a kind word the one who had enough taste, strength and means to place beautiful semi-precious talismans in the house, carrying good and positive energy, instilling a high lifestyle.

So. When choosing a stone countertop for your kitchen, remember! You are now knights of the stone table, where ladies and gentlemen belong to the same knightly order, the rules of which prescribe you to lead a life worthy of your title, wealth and bloodline.

Text: Nikolay Matvienko