Do you want to know why Carrara is so hot? Simple. It’s a classic!
In the era of social media when visual images have a short lifespan; it’s terrifying to think that you would invest in something for your home that was simply “trending”. I typically tell people to invest in their houses adding what they love, not because it’s trending. Carrara is a classic and it often goes back to old memories.
It is true, with items that are trending; they are more abundant and easier to buy. Carrara countertops can still be purchased in the typical manner of going to the stone yard (like Boston Granite Exchange, located in Haverhill, MA) and choosing your slab then sending it to the fabricator for them to template your space and install. No doubt, it’s a process and a custom process at that. Then again, in the comfort of your own home at 1am, you could go on Restoration Hardware and buy a vanity with Carrara top that will be delivered in a few short days. However, to be honest, they will probably cost the same. But, you have to invest more time in the custom option in order to get the exact piece of Carrara that you want for your home.
Other items are also now made of Carrara – and they are just as classic as the countertops. Penny round mosaic tiles for bathrooms and 3×6 subway tiles were often used in the 40’s and are still used today. But you can put a spin on Carrara too, with modern patterned tiles and mosaics from hexagons, to 3D images, and more.
Carrara is a marble that has white and grey, but other options of marble are just as beautiful, and perhaps more appropriate for your project. Bianco marble has more white in it, while Calacatta has more brown in it.
But Carrara isn’t appropriate for everywhere and it is expensive. Therefore, manufacturers have created fabricated options like Cambria, Berwyn and Anatolia porcelain tile. We would never recommend that it is used in the kitchen, unless you are a very careful and an experienced cook. In order to keep the cost down in a shower, it might be wise to use large format tile versus a real Carrara wall. Porcelain tile is a lot less expensive than a solid slab wall of Carrara, but engineered stone (such as Cambria or Caesarstone) are just about the same price. This is because they have many positive attributes that the real stone can’t compete with.
Long and short, you just can’t get Carrara wrong!