Stone Stories: Yasmine
Q: What did you set out need to achieve in this project?
This was for a lovely family of four, with two girls and a dog. They had been in that house for a good decade, living with a strange floor plan. It used to be an old shopfront and had a heritage overlay, which created a challenge. We had to figure out how to modernise it without losing the characteristics that made the house so charming to begin with. With all the walls being sandstone, it was quite heavy, too, so trying to figure out how to pair materials that were sympathetic to what was there but also build its own life was quite difficult. Pairing the sandstone with the lighter travertine flooring made a lot of sense, it bounced light around.
Q: What drew you to Eco Outdoor’s Chambon travertine?
We chose it to complement the sandstone – the sandstone is a rough surface, so we didn’t want anything super polished on the floor, we wanted it a bit pitted, a bit uneven. We didn’t fill any of the holes, so it had that natural sensitivity underfoot. The lightness, the colour, was perfect. We must have looked at 25 different stones, taking them all onsite, and that was the standout. It is an indoor/outdoor material, and we always try and make those two areas team up.
“Chambon travertine is one of those rare materials that can make any palette sing. Its variance in colour and ability to bring brightness yet softness to any white interior is something worth celebrating. Its beautiful natural pitting is perhaps my most favourite element of its makeup – imperfect, my favourite kind.”
Q: What inspired the unique extra wide grout?
It was an experiment to do the grout lines so thick. It was one of our first ideas for the house and it just stuck – I hadn’t seen it done before but I wondered what it would look like. We cut the travertine tiles down to 400mm x 400mm and enlarged the grout lines in between, so it would feel more like an outdoor experience. We did some experiments and played around with the binding material to make sure it didn’t end up cracking. I went back a year ago and it looks exactly the same as the day we finished the project. It was so nice to see the robustness of the material.
