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Give In to Your Wild Side With Exotic Granite and Onyx

Go beyond the standard slab with these radiant and rare stones

Jess McBride June 1, 2016

Houzz Contributor. Custom decorating professional and content creator for the home design industry with a lifelong passion for color, pattern, and texture of every "stripe"

Houzz Contributor. Custom decorating professional and content creator for the home... More

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Granite has become so common that it’s all too easy to forget its exotic origins. As natural stone countertops shift from luxury trend to standard feature, selecting rare, exotic varieties and using them in eye-popping ways can allow homeowners and builders to make a common material feel fresh and exciting again.

Granitech Inc.

Go Gaga for These Granites

Azul Bahia, quarried in the state of Bahia in Brazil, is a semiprecious bedrock granite with a distinctive blue hue and extensive veining. As with most natural stone, the coloring will vary from piece to piece. Some slabs sport a hint of green or black, so it’s important to lay eyes on the exact piece you’re getting before it’s installed in your home.

Orro Artistic Tile

Granite is one of the hardest natural stones, second only to diamonds, which makes it a natural choice for counters and even flooring. Still, when your slab looks like a piece of art, pressing it into service in such a functional way can feel so utilitarian. Commissioning it as a spectacular fireplace surround and matching floor tile inlay allows its beauty to reign over the decor, so that little else is needed.

A&S Sales of Virginia, LLC

Since it’s pricey, Azul Bahia will commonly be found playing a supporting role as a tile inlay in an exotic Mediterranean or Middle Eastern-styled bathroom.

JDM Countertops, Inc.

It can also be used as an unexpected accent by the pool. The epoxy resin that’s often applied during the polishing process to fill in gaps in the stone can make the surface as slippery as honed marble, so take care when using it as flooring.

JDM Countertops, Inc.

Beautiful Azul Bahia looks as stunning as part of an outdoor water feature as it does inside the bathroom as a shower surround.

J Wiley Designs

Using a granite like Azul Bahia as a kitchen or bathroom countertop may be an obvious application for the material, but I promise: Nothing about this pop of ocean blue will seem predictable. It’s as soothing as the watery aquas that so many of us already love for the bathroom, but it adds a depth and luxury that’s hard to match.

Etheridge Home Renovation

Van Gogh granite, mined in Brazil and reminiscent of the colors in the artist’s Starry Night painting, is one of the most richly colored natural granites on the market. It shines its brightest in small doses and amid solid-colored decor, where it can act as a singular focal point.

Elizabeth Strianese Interiors LLC

Add Some Oomph With Onyx

Pictured here in this divine Chappaqua, New York, bathroom is majestic violet onyx. Though it’s found on almost every continent, onyx is considered rare and not as hard as granite, so it’s more difficult to quarry intact and tends to be pricey as a result. (It’s more affordable and easier to find in smaller pieces.) Its relative softness means it will scratch and etch easily, like marble, but the subtle beauty of this trough sink couldn’t have been achieved with any other material.

Ogle, luxury kitchens, Bathrooms & Stonework

Taking a cue from renowned architect Mies van der Rohe, who famously installed a slab of onyx as an entire living room wall at Villa Tugendhat, British design firm Ogle engineered a free-standing slab of onyx fitted between two glass panels and held fast in a slot in the floor.

Chloe Warner

“Bookmatching” stone slabs by adjoining two to create a mirror image on either side is a relatively common practice in wall applications. Here, the barely perceptible seam lines up with the shower glass so that the tub is on one “page” and the shower on the other.

RKI Interior Design

Your contractor or stone professional can backlight your onyx using specialized panels for full and even coverage, or by using a light tape that one popular backlighting company claims is as thin as a credit card and produces no heat.

Impala Kitchens and Bathrooms

A backlit breakfast bar will always be a showstopper.

G Little Construction

Black Cloud onyx from Italy is one of the most extraordinary stones available. This bathroom showcases the material’s alluring cloudlike effect in translucent grays and creams. Another great candidate for backlighting and bookmatching, it’s especially effective as a large-scale wall treatment, where its natural splendor can be admired full-on.

Contemporary Bathroom Contemporary Bathroom

Here’s Black Cloud backlit as a vanity and shower suite.

Architectural Justice

Ohio design firm Architectural Justice designed this backlit staircase in warm Honey onyx, with coordinating marble handrail to complete the luxe look.

Marble 'n Things

Large polished slabs aren’t the only, or even the best, scale for onyx, since it’s expensive and difficult to quarry in larger cuts. These green and red backsplash tiles illustrate what is perhaps the most logical use of onyx in the home.

Dick Clark + Associates

Here we see one more unique application of exotic natural stone, this time in Honey onyx. The tiles, mounted to a large pivoting door, look almost like smoldering embers against the sandstone walls.

More
Bathroom Workbook: 7 Natural Stones With Enduring Beauty
5 Favorite Granites for Gorgeous Kitchen Countertops