Decorative stone walls, partitions and wall cladding

Any natural stone - marble, granite, onyx, or any other - is a great choice for accent walls and interior wall cladding. An accent wall made of a large stone slab with a unique pattern speaks to the space louder than any other decorative interior element. As there are no limits to the variety of stone colors and patterns, you can find the right stone to match almost any space. You can boldly choose and experiment, without worrying about the stone's hardness, sensitivity, or fragility. Although stone walls, like any other natural stone products, should be impregnated, you can do this just once in a while.

Each natural stone wall is unique because every stone slab has its own distinct character. Bringing in a natural stone wall is like bringing home a new living persona. Day after day, your stone wall will quietly tell you its magic story spanning through millions of years. You will be able to read those stories by looking at its veins and patterns. Just think: while sitting on the couch in your 21st century living room or resting in your bedroom, you can submerge into the fairy-tale journey of your beloved stone. The millennia of uninterrupted cycles of erosion, sedimentation, burial, and uplift are carved into the rock veins, wrinkles and faults.

Interior designers often choose marble for accent walls and wall cladding. Marble walls transmit the feeling of classical luxury. Marble wall does not require that much care and attention as horizontal marble surfaces, like stairs or worktops. Obviously, you are not going to walk on the walls, and it is not likely that you spill liquids on them. That's why marble's high etching, acid sensitivity and porosity are less important. Walls are just the right element in the interior where marble is both beautiful and practical. However, marble is certainly not the only choice for an accent wall.

Similar to marble, translucent onyx slabs also possess similar characteristics. An onyx wall is even more delicate than marble, but that doesn't matter - after all, you won't be cutting bread on it or hassle on its surface with tableware. Being semi-transparent, onyx is ingeniously used for translucent walls and partitions. An onyx wall can serve as a divider between a bathroom and a bedroom, or between a brightly lit space and a darker room where light enters from a less illuminated area. Naturally or artificially backlit, green onyx walls can evoke an underwater world, while orange can resemble a desert sunrise. At night, such a wall becomes a fabulous illumination. Onyx walls and partitions can be found in luxurious business centers, hotel lobbies, restaurants, and bars.

Impressive granite slabs are also used for accent walls. Granite is perfect for clading large wall surfaces in high-traffic areas, as it is low in porosity, non-scratch, and not brittle. Granite walls are almost everlasting. This stone is very resistant to temperature changes, therefore suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. Granite can come in economic, well known colors and patterns, or in unusually strong, fantastic colors and patterns. However, slabs with exceptional designs will cost several times more than ordinary ones. A light granite wall with navy patterns can bring a cloudy sky into your home, while a green granite wall may resemble a window to a forest.

A luxurious and distinctive stone that looks simply stunning is quartzite. It is even harder than granite! Pure quartzite rock is composed of quartz particles, and its genuine color is white. However, this stone often surprises with fabulous colors and patterns due to other mineral impurities. A quartzite wall can be pink, orange, green; it can even be partially translucent. Sometimes a quartzite slab can resemble a home-made soap bar with inclusions that you'd want to eat. It's really hard to resist quartzite's charms. However, the budget for impressive quartzite walls must be significant.

Similarly, calculate a multi-figure budget for gemstone walls, too. Exotic gemstone slabs are typically about 3-4 cm thick and, depending on the type of stones they consist of, more or less translucent. Just imagine the serene glow of blue agate, purple amethyst, pink quartzite walls. Gemstone slabs can reach up to 3 metres in hight and 1,5 metres in width. Dramatic walls can be made from red jasper, green amazonite, grey petrified wood, brown or orange tiger's eye. Some gemstone slabs are composed entirely from fossils. Each gemstone wall is a painting created by nature, a one-off work of art. 

Two other types of stone used for cladding walls are travertine and sandstone. Yellow, orange, and gray waves of sandstone resemble layered sand cliffs, so if you want to sip coffee in your living room while admiring the patterns of sand dunes, all you need is a sandstone wall. Travertine is a bit more modest, but still a special earth-toned stone. Interior designers find it appealing for its neutrality, as it fits almost everywhere. A wonderful and distinctive feature of travertine is its natural holes, which stone suppliers usually fill with special transparent sealant. Travertine and sandstone have a natural, warm and cosy look. They are particularly suited to interiors that aim for hidden, unobtrusive luxury.

A great alternative to natural stone as a material for cladding walls is artificial stone. Artificial stone walls do not need to be impregnated and are easy to clean, which is true even in high traffic areas. Walls covered with large format sintered stone, engineered quartz, ceramic and porcelain weigh much less than natural stone walls, as the slabs of artificial stone are thinner. Thin wall cladding looks very modern and elegant. By choosing artificial stone for decorating your walls you can save a significant portion of transportation and installation costs. You will also save up to 1-2 cm of your living room or bedroom space, which would otherwise be absorbed by more bulky natural stone slabs. Walls can be clad with sintered stone, ceramic, porcelain or solid surface sheets as thin as 6 mm!

The hardest and most resistant to wear and tear artificial stone material that tolerates maximum everyday human traffic indoors and outdoors is sintered stone. The softest but flexible, and particularly convenient in irregular, oval-shaped, or other types of rooms is acrylic solid surface. All types of artificial stone are non-porous and do not absorb water. Due to the thinness and lightness of artificial stone slabs, they are convenient for multi-story buildings and easy to install in small spaces. Walls made of high-quality artificial stone are almost indistinguishable from real stone walls at first glance, so you can confidently consider this light-weight and often cheaper option.