The versatility and beauty of natural stone is such that its potential uses around the home are endless. When remodelling floors, there are several things to keep in mind, like durability, maintenance, and appearance. Slate and limestone are the perfect choice to achieve your dream interior design, as all of its features combine to provide a safe and beautiful environment.
As natural stone flooring is currently a very popular choice for modern homes, our range of slate and limestone flooring will cater for all types of projects, modern or old.
Slate is very water resistant, primarily why it makes such a good roofing material, however it also makes it the perfect choice for your bathroom or kitchen. If you’re looking for a slip-resistant option for use in a particularly wet area, our Ravendale Graphite Riven slate would be ideal, offering a slip resistant surface but without a heavily textured surface.
Having young children in the house is always lovely, but they do sometimes create a mess, with certain stains can being incredibly difficult to remove from any surface. Natural stone however, when sealed properly, is unlikely to stain. It also requires very little maintenance, and a simple mopping with a soft mop to guarantee it keeps looking its best.
Unlike wood flooring, slate is non-flammable. You’ll have more peace of mind knowing that you have an added safety feature, especially if used around an open fire or wood burner.
Slate comes in a wide variety of finishes. You can take advantage of mother nature’s amazing ability to create unique patterns, enabling you to personalise the look and design of your home as the individuality of slate ensures that no two surface are the same. Our range consists of a variety of colours and finishes meaning you are bound to find the right stone flooring for your home.
Our range of finishes includes:
Riven: This finish gives the slate a light texture making it ideal for both internal and external uses, while also giving the surface good anti slip characteristics.
Honed: This finish is achieved by machining the surface until completely smooth. The honing process massively enhances the shade variations which naturally occur in within the slate.
Tumbled: This finish gives the slate a more aged appearance with its distressed edges and ever so slightly rubbed faces. Perfect for a traditional style renovation.
Antiqued: This finish leaves the slates light riven texture but has also been gently polished with a diamond wire brush to give it an amazing tactile leather feel. The brushing enhances the shade variation in the slate, giving more character and warmth to the floor.
Natural stone is a beautiful and unique flooring option for your home, and we always strive to offer customers the best possible products and service to ensure that the perfect home design is easily achievable. If you’re thinking about remodelling your flooring, you can contact us on 015395 59289 to speak to our friendly team. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to keep up to date with our news.
Slate is one of the most beautiful natural materials available. It’s simplistic and elegant, as well as extremely flexible when it comes to fitting into a well established interior style; we can’t think of a single interior design theme where slate would look out of place.
The kitchen is one of the rooms in a home where slate slots in seamlessly. As kitchens are becoming the social hub of the home, you want to be able to rely on the materials you choose to place within that space to be durable, as they are going to get more use than anywhere else in the house.
So, what are our favourite slate kitchen accessories?
Why risk marking your beautiful table with hot plates or spillages when you can use a placemat which can help absorb some of the heat? Slate is excellent at absorbing heat, protecting the table beneath from any possible damage when a hot plate is placed on the surface, and can be wiped down easily should anything be spilt on it.
If you’re someone who spends a great deal of time in the kitchen cooking for your family or guests, why not install a slate wall sign which you can write on with chalk?
It also looks great in a country style kitchen as the natural material will compliment the simplistic nature of the design – you could even frame the slate with wooden to tie it in even further and hang it with sturdy string!
Although this isn’t really an accessory as such, a worktop is something that many people like to use as a focal point within their kitchen and, like many accessories, brings a lot of character to a room.
It also gives your kitchen a little more depth; slate’s texture is very unique and – coupled with the striking colour – is one of the main reasons that it stands out so much.
Make a statement with slate in your kitchen – we guarantee that it will look effortlessly stylish! If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you achieve the perfect home interior, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us today – we’ll be more than happy to help!
Modern design in 2016 has taken a turn from the black and white contrasts that have dominated since the beginning of the twenty-first century, instead it has begun to blend and use different shades of grey as a prominent component of interior design. The myriad of shades create stunning effects; grey can be dramatic, understated, accented, bright, dark and practically anything that you want it to be.
You don’t have to paint all of your walls grey and buy every piece of furniture in the shade to reap the benefits of using this shade as a centre piece in your home. Instead you can use it in part of your home such as your fireplace. This lies in the heart of the home and offers warmth, comfort and a place to gather during the winter. Using slate to turn this into a stunning statement piece in your living room can be a fantastic way to incorporate grey into your home without feeling as if you are overwhelmed by it.
A great way to use grey for effectiveness as a statement in your home is with a classic feature wall. This can be painted, but for a modern rustic feel a fantastic grey slate wall would be a way to really stand out. This is a great alternative for anyone wary of decorating a whole room in grey.
If you feel that grey is too dark or without personality then a splash of colour is a fantastic way to highlight the grey, but it can also help to break up the perceived monotony of the shade. A combination of a lighter shade of grey and a pastel colour is also a great way to brighten your home whilst maintaining a modern look.
One of our latest bespoke projects is a perfect example of everything slate can offer. This material was used for the ‘Graphite Bar’ at the Leathes Head Hotel at Keswick, and the end result is a stunning slate bar top with intricate engravings.
These beautiful, creative engravings are machined into each piece of slate by local craftsmen at Gordon Greaves Stone in Troutbeck Bridge, turning this bar top into a truly original piece – one which is a wonderful blend of art and function. Hotel guests from around the world are able to enjoy all the benefits of a slate surface while taking in its design and being a conversation starter for any lover of this spectacularly scenic area.
Combined with the gorgeous and intricate etchings on the surface of the stone, the result is a modern, stylish bar-top that greatly complements its natural oak surrounding fixtures and matches the overall design of the space beautifully.
From public buildings to homes, slate is an excellent choice of material for roofing – both in terms of its durability and its ability to transform your property into a much more attractive and enticing location.
However, choosing to use slate still leaves a vast range of options to consider. There are a few specific factors to keep in mind before choosing the right slate for you.
Balancing these separate concerns can often mean deciding whether you want to focus on something that is hard-wearing enough to resist the elements and last for a long time, or something which gives that ‘wow factor’ that makes your building beautiful.
Luckily, making your decision doesn’t have to mean making a compromise, since some of the best slate products out there can fulfil both sets of requirements. Perhaps most impressive among them is Welsh Slate, which is both renowned as one of the most durable slates in the world – offering hundreds of years of proven natural waterproofing and resistance to extreme weather conditions – whilst being uniquely beautiful, with two distinct hues being instantly recognisable. You can choose between Welsh Dark Blue Grey slate from the Cwt-Y-Bugail quarry and the Welsh Heather Blue slate from Penrhyn quarry, so it pays to spend a little bit of time considering your selection, especially if the overall look is one of your primary concerns.
Welsh Slate is also an excellent choice if you’re looking to retain a rustic look to your property, the heavier Celtic or County grades being the preferred options for exposed and more traditional builds, however that doesn’t mean it’s out of place as part of a more modern structure; as it’s also available in a slim, flat Capital grade.
While we’ve covered some of the common decision factors here today, you may well have more specific concerns related to your roof slate project. If that is the case, then we encourage you to get in touch today and talk through the options with our expert team!
As specialists in slate from across the globe, we understand the importance of using high-quality stone in your renovation project due to its exceptional qualities. Whether it is for roofing, flooring, wall cladding, or any number of bespoke architecture fittings; slate is incredibly versatile and offers a wide range of design options. I’ll explain in a little more detail how these qualities can be hugely advantageous when slate is used as a flooring material.
Uses
Slate tiles can be used indoors, where the most concentrated foot traffic tends to occur; or outdoors, which is a great option for patios and outdoor dining areas for example. You can opt for this natural stone no matter the style of your development since it works excellently with both contemporary and more traditional architecture. The high degree of customisation of slate tiles will add individuality, charisma and personality to your home or business.
Manmade tiles cannot be compared to natural slate. Their beauty and quality are greatly attributed to the fact that each piece of stone is unique. These natural variations provide a one-of-kind feeling and finish to your space. Slate is available in a variety of colours which complement every design idea, and while some tend to be softer and lighter in tone; others are darker and ideal for a more urban decor.
Style
Just like we did with Gail’s Artisan Bakery, you can have slate tiles cut to any shape and size desired. This can help you obtain the right look for your project; one that not only matches the interior design but also best suits your needs. As well as the shape, the surface finish can greatly change the feel of a room and this can also relate to its suitability. Our Elterdale Grey Green Tumbled slate tiles, for instance, make an ideal floor covering when laid in a random pattern in an old cottage or farmhouse kitchen. This can be vastly contrasted to our Ravendale Graphite Honed tiles which produce a sharp, clean and modern look to a new build bathroom.
Our new UK Slate trailer on J T Leyland’s tractor unit. Heading off yesterday to Birmingham and then to Tilbury Port, to collect a full load of slate roofing and flooring. Keep an eye out for this cruising up and down the motorway!
A few more photos from Holland Harvey Architects of the bespoke tile project completed earlier this summer. Great to see the finished project and another happy client.
“Gail’s Neo Bankside, Holland Harvey Architects. Ravendale Riven Bespoke Tiles.”
An excellent example of bespoke slate tiles produced for a high specification renovation in Central London. In total 1878 Ravendale Riven tiles were cut into triangles for floor and counter top coverings. Check this out in person at Gail’s Artisan Bakery!
