marble, onyx, or?

15 years ago

I love carrara marble, and have used it in kitchens for many years. Finally doing a new bath for myself and looking forward to all marble. But- every other bath you see now is calacatta gold marble, and I am getting bored with it. The house is british colonial style, so I know the marble would look good, but would love some opinions on how these would work;

Honey onyx, 12 x12 polished on floor and shower with shower floor and trim of mixed 1/4" mosaic onyx and white quartz. I know it is soft, but this is my bath, so I will be barefoot, and home depot sells it crazy cheap.

OR

Tile guy showed me a stone slab that is all white with a huge swirl of blue and green- looks just like an ocean wave. Would use it as a slab on shower walls with white quartz 1/4" mosaic on floors. But would it look to modern for the house?

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Comments (3)

cindaintx
15 years ago
As a geologist, I love onyx, would love to have it as my shower. But it is barely even a rock. It's a beautiful, fragile deposit along warm springs. Many would argue that it's environmentally irresponsible to dig such a soft stone out of the ground and transport it around the globe for a use where it won't last five years.
Could you use the onyx as a partition wall in the bath and use stronger things for the surfaces? Onyx with light going through it is spectacular.
"and Home Depot sells it crazy cheap" doesn't mean it's a good choice. Believe me, we did cheap slate once...
Johndrew
15 years ago
Does that mean you would not recommend slate? I was thinking of doing a shower like the link below.
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Studioist
15 years ago
I love honey onyx but I think that 12x12, even for a bathroom, is just asking for cracked and chipped tiles. Shoes won't be a problem, but dropping anything heavy would probably result in real damage. I think you would be safer with the mosaic tiles or something smaller format, at the very least.

As to the other blue and white stone choice--how modern are the rest of your furnishings and choices throughout the home? You don't have to be period-correct, I think you just need to continue the tone and style you have in the rest of your rooms.