Project Home: Finding our Marble Slabs

The first post in this series is here. 

On our first visit to IRG Stone, there was one slab that made us stop in our tracks: Calacatta Viola Extra. The response was simultaneously: WHOA. What? Wow.

And when we got closer, we appreciated it even more. We wanted to touch it. And we wanted to look at it longer. It felt old-world. It felt soulful.

It was also a little… dare I say: scary? Because it was A LOT bolder than we had intended for the kitchen. So we took lots of photos and videos and spent the next few days thinking it over.

Purchasing natural stone is not a decision to take lightly: it’s a huge investment on the front end. And the middle end: fabrication and installation. And the long-term, see also: caring for marble. We were really lucky to be working with Lex and Jogreet at IRG Stone during this process. Their guidance was invaluable. And they were always quick to respond to emails, answer our phone calls and look into options for us.

And so we hemmed and hawed and continued to return to IRG Stone. And specifically, to this slab.

Ultimately, it was Jeremiah Brent’s sage advice that made us feel really good about our decision on two fronts: on bolder veining and on the durability of marble. In his words: “marble is never too busy,” and “the most beautiful stones are the ones that show the history of the people that live there.”

I love that. And yes, I am fully romanticizing all of the anticipated memories I plan to have with my family and friends around this stone. I could feel it as I stood inches away from the stone. I could feel it when I traced my fingers along the veining. It was visceral, and it was unanimous. Our household is a democracy (including Lucia), ha!

We might have found our slabs, but it was designer Maureen Ursino of Ursino Interiors who unearthed our backsplash “artwork” by rotating the slab and creating a left-to-right upward movement, reminiscent of the swoop of a deep violet-burgundy paintbrush on a canvas of creams and beiges. We worked with her via 1-hour consultations at key points during our build process and she became the most wonderful guide we could have asked for.

Using Fiverr, I found a 3D rendering artist who was able to create a life-like visual of our future kitchen, with the exact slab and exact fabricated layout of our slab:

This is something I didn’t realize until going through the process myself: deciding on the slab layout is just as important as deciding on which slab to use. Perhaps more-so because of the strong veining of our stone. There were dozens of iterations and fine-tuning, but we are so thrilled with where we landed.

Last step after purchasing our slabs and before fabrication and install: transport! IRG Stone connected us with Western Mountain Transport who was able to safely transfer our precious slabs to our fabricator in the Pacific Northwest.

Yes, that’s right, we’ve been building a second home in the Pacific Northwest!

This entire build process has been done remotely, which for the most part has been doable. But given the investment in the stone we knew it made more sense for us to find our stone here in the Bay Area where the selection was incredible and the distance was accessible to us. And we were validated once I realized I made many, many, many subsequent visits to visualize tile options next to our stones. Shipping prices were super reasonable and they’ve been a trusted transport partner of IRG Stone for 16 or 18 years.

And finally, the results are in! Next up: I’ll share our final kitchen reveal!