Lapicida – Stone for the 21st Century

One of the first things Mark, our Lapicida showroom tour guide, mentioned at the start of his tour was that people often think of stone as “cold,” not a material you’d really want permeating your home. At this point I imagine a guilty look crossed my face. I’ve long been of the opinion that a house with abundant use of stone either includes a butler named Alfred or is of the medieval variety. Lapicida, consider me converted. The showroom is a masterpiece, displaying stone in every possible application: flooring, walls, furniture, and decoration. Lapicida challenged my perceptions of what stone can be, creating entire kitchens, living rooms, and dining rooms within their showroom to illustrate their point.

My favorite feature of the entire showroom was a wall of Italian vein-cut travertine. The wall featured a gradient of color that lightened as it progressed towards the ceiling and was gorgeous, rendering unnecessary any additional ornamentation placed in the room. I found myself unwilling to move on to the next room, straining to catch the fading intonations of our tour guide as he grew further away. The stone’s natural beauty was compounded by the artful installation. The room was stunning yet understated, an homage to the natural beauty of stone.

Lapicida did more than convince me that stone has a place outside of bathrooms and castles, however. They showed me that stone can be considered art in its own right.  An artistic interpretation of stone comes through via Lapicida’s “book matching” technique. When a particularly beautiful piece of stone is uncovered, the stone is split and then the pieces are placed side by side in such a way as to enhance the symmetry of the piece and the imagery wrought by Mother Nature. One of the first things you see upon entering the showroom is a Rorschach-esque book-matched piece of marble that features a vaguely butterfly-shaped crimson design against a cream background. It’s a piece of art that is made doubly impressive due to its natural origins.  The image below is a “quarter matched” piece, a piece that was split into four sections and aligned accordingly.

I guess a good way to sum up my feelings about our Lapicida visit was that, had I been currently in the process of renovating or building a home, it would now be entirely decorated in stone. I would also be searching for a butler named Alfred.