Marble Testing with Household Staple - Red Wine

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Using marble for kitchen countertop and backsplash is ever more popular nowadays.  We see the most beautiful kitchens on Houzz and Pinterest clad in some kind of marble, and without a second thought we would put that on our kitchen wish list.  But how practical is marble for a real kitchen that gets a fair deal of daily usage (and without an immediate wipe down)?  That's why we looked at marble alternatives in this post, and it actually became our blog's most repinned topic... 900+ and counting!

Us marble owners wannabe's are most likely concerned with the three main cons of marble:  cost, maintenance, and etching.  The nicest piece of marble is most likely double+ the price of manmade quartz stones, not to mention the extra care that natural stones need.  Proper sealing of the stone gives it some extra time to avoid severe etching.  So, what is etching?

Etching is the dulling effect caused by the chemical reaction of acidic spills on the calcium based marble.  Basically, any red wine, citrus juice, tomato sauce, etc that come into contact with the marble would "eat away" at the stone upon contact, and make it feel rough to the touch if left for a long time.  Is there an "appropriate" length of time that we can ignore these acidic spills?  We did a little experiment to test that out.  

We were given a sample of Bianco Neve at our appointment with the stone fabricator.  It is a white marble with beautiful depth and crystalization that sparkles as it catches the light.  As lovely as it is, we had to subject it to our household staple and etching culprit - red wine.

This piece of sample has a polished finish but is not protected by any sealant.  We separated the sample piece into quadrants...

Applied a teaspoon of red wine on each quadrant...

HERE WE GO!

and did a time lapse test of 30 seconds, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, and 4 hours.

WAITING FOR THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

30 seconds is easily the time of a splash of tomato sauce on the counter while the Mr. is at the stove, before he notices the splash to wipe it up in time.  

Don't know which of red wine or tomato sauce is worse, but even the 30-second rule yields a slight etched mark.

A SLIGHT OVAL DULL MARK IS SOMEWHAT VISIBLE 

Next is the 5 minute mark, the dulling is a lot more visible now.

Sometimes we wouldn't notice a splash at the stove until after a meal, which may be around 30 minutes.  If that's the case, the polish is gone.  I would consider this moderate etching.

Under the reflection, here's how the sample looks like with the time lapse red wine test.  The 30 seconds, as expected, has the least visible etched mark.  The 5 and 30 minutes etching are comparable in person.

4 hours after the red wine spill...  oh that can easily be the time that we notice a spill after a gathering.  What will happen then?

After 4 hours, the red wine darkened the spot it occupied on the marble.  The spot was clearly dull and also felt rough to the touch.

In comparison to the other three quadrants, the 4 hour red wine stain has completely dulled the polish, even though they were all dulled to some extent.

In this view, the discoloration of the 4 hour red wine stain has created a dark spot at the lower right quadrant.

And that concludes our test.  Looks like the 30 second rule also applies to spills on marble!

Did I just make your head spin even more, or did this test help to make your decision process much easier?  Will you be able to live with the etched marks on your beloved piece of marble and tell the story behind each mark?  Or does your kitchen countertop have to be perfectly polished even with serious daily usage?  Our decision may surprise ourselves either way.

Design Inspirations for Our New Dining Room

When I saw the most recent sale of Get the Look of Downtown Loft  at One Kings Lane, my heart skipped a beat.  Not because of the items for sale, but the inspirational photos of the living and dining areas show a layout just like that of our new house!  The styling is impeccable - light walls as the background for statement art pieces, an elegantly furnished sitting area, and a traditional dining area with an abundance of natural light.  I think One Kings Lane just read my mind!

ONE KINGS LANE

ONE KINGS LANE

I've previously talked about how our living/ dining areas are adjacent to each other.  Here's the design board for our living room.  I'm hoping it'll be be loaded with natural light during the day, just like OKL's photos above.

NEW HOUSE LIVING ROOM DESIGN BOARD | CLASSY GLAM LIVING

Here is our furniture plan for the dining area, which is open to the living area, similar to the One Kings Lane photos above.  

The dining area is approximately 18' x 14', so our existing dining furniture will fit in nicely.  The left side of the dining room will look similar to our previous dining room, where the console table and mirror are placed against the wall.

However, not everything decor-wise will remain the same at the new house.  Afterall, moving into another house is the best time to try something new!  

Wall Treatment

The trim-crazy Mr. will no doubt still want to have trims done for the living and dining areas.  This time around, instead of a chair rail separating the upper and lower walls, the wainscoting will be from floor to ceiling.  The chair rail draws the eyes along the walls, and is more approriate for a large space.  With our smaller ground floor at the new house, we want to lead the eyes upwards and that can be achieved by a full floor to ceiling wainscoting.

The style of the wainscoting will be built out, rather than installing rectangular frames on the walls like we did for our previous dining room.  We used a similar built-out effect on our kitchen island.  We like the minimalist look of inset frames, while the architectural detailing still gives the area an elegant feeling.

BUILT-OUT PANELLING - FRAME IS INSET

FINISH LOOK OF BUILT-OUT PANELLING...  JUST IMAGINE THAT ON THE WALLS!

WINDOW TREATMENT

With the living and dining areas being open to each other in a smaller area, we would like to go with less heavy fabrics for draperies.  A softer look helps to open up the space, while still looking elegant.  I went from considering the extreme of a sheers-only look...

SOURCE UNKNOWN.

... to a sheer on sheer look...

OUR SUBURBAN COTTAGE

... and then I saw this set of gorgeous linen drapes.  Linen still has the light and airy feeling I'm opting for, but it has a slight weight to it that gathers nicely with French pleats.  Pair the panels with some nice rods, and we've got a winner!

TONIC LIVING

TWO CHANDELIERS ABOVE DINING TABLE

I had been searching for the longest time for the right dining room lighting fixture at our previous house.  At the new house, look no more!  We took our chandeliers above the kitchen island with us, and we'll put up the pair above the dining table!  That'll for sure be a statement piece of jewelry for the dining room!  This is my attempt to visualize the look =)

STATEMENT ART PIECE

At the right side of the dining room, we're planning to hang a statement art piece that measures around 4'H x 3'W.  We can leave that wall as is, but it will look too bare.  Putting an armchair at the corner with a sidetable would fill up the space nicely, while creating an extra sitting nook...  for someone ready to jump to help with dinner, or someone anxiously waiting to nab at food coming out of the kitchen (aka me)..

SARAH RICHARDSON DESIGN

BAR CART OR CONSOLE TABLE?

In place of the armchair at the corner, we originally thought that would be an excellent spot for a barcart.  Since we already have a console table, I think making it into a bar area looks just as attractive, similar to this look:

DOMAINE

THE DINING RUG

Ahhhhh, the dining room rug.  The search for it seems never-ending.  It's a similar situation as the dining room light fixture.  Getting the bang for the buck on these investment pieces is just not an easy task, not to mention other factors that we need to consider.  From the rug size and style, to practicality like material and pile, it's been a long ride. We prefer rugs with a border, with a muted tone on tone pattern or neutral colours that are subtle against the statement art piece.  In short, we've (finally) narrowed down to these several looks. 

POTTERY BARN

JOSS & MAIN

ONE KINGS LANE

This pretty much wraps up the ground floor design of our new house.  "Small space, big living" is our new motto, and we'll achieve that with practical design of our home.  From our entryway, kitchen, living room, and now the dining room, we want to (and need to) utilize and enjoy all the space available.  We don't have the luxury of extra space for a "display only" living and dining "museum", though we'll design our space with luxurious touches that are also practical for everyday living.  

Practical design is also key when you have a kiddo who grabs any stick-like objects and starts playing floor hockey right then and there...

CAN'T WAIT TO MOVE IN!

Big Boy Room for Our Little Man

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Perhaps the grey and dull winter has crept up to me, but lately I've been more preoccupied with dreaming up the fun rooms in our new house.  A playroom in the house is the ultimate fun place, and now I'm onto little man's adjoining bedroom.  As with other rooms in our house, we've gone through several ideas with little man's bedroom.  We originally planned on putting a desk area in his room, but his arts and crafts area will now be in the playroom.  

I would like to try something different for little man's designated areas.  While the rest of our house will be in a more traditional/ transitional style, the playroom's modern industrial vibe will spillover to little man's bedroom.  My jumping off point?  A cool union jack rug, but even better is one that's scrambled!  This FLOR tile rug is every bit cool and sophisticated, perfect for a big boy's room.

FLOR

And there, his room's theme colours will be red, navy, and white.  With a wildly patterned rug, a light muted grey wall colour would be a perfect backdrop, similar to this wall colour. 

LAY BABY LAY

A big boy room would of course need a big boy bed.  The slight wing back on this one looks super comfy.  I also like that it's not tufted, so it seems more unisex.  The rounded wooden legs is a nice nod to the mid-century modern vibe.

WEST ELM

Ignore the girly flowers in the photo below...  but the bedside table has simple clean lines and large drawers for storage.  It will pair nicely with the bed above..  Looks simple enough to DIY, don't you think?  Maybe I can add that to the Mr.'s DIY list...

DOMAINE

Instead of a pair of bedside tables, a low storage unit placed on the other side of the bed adds a layer of interest to the room.   This one in the photo below is from IKEA, and it has the industrial vibe I'm after.  A feature wall above the unit creates height and balance to an otherwise empty wall.

JUST THE BEE'S KNEES

A super sports fan like the little man would of course need a spot to display his team jerseys!  The wall opposite to his bed will be the perfect spot for his proud display, and he actually has team jerseys in his room's theme colours to match!  I'm loving the jersey display in the photo below (and it has little man's stamp of approval).  I think his jerseys would fit nicely in the Ribba shadow box frame from IKEA.  The use of a coloured mat in the frame is a great idea to give the wall a pop of colour.  

DECOIST

IKEA

I've learned to appreciate the use of light fixtures to accentuate the theme style of a space.  To round up this big boy room with a modern twist, I think this Supernova fixture gives the room its edgy vibe (and is appropriately named for my superstar!).

ONE KINGS LANE

I think I've just made the Mr. green with envy of little man's "boy cave", and now his ultimate "bachelor pad".  I hope by styling little man's bedroom as a big boy room, he won't grow out of it too soon!  Keeping the major pieces timeless is key to this room, as accessories can be easily replaced as his taste of the year changes.  

Have you switched over from a nursery decor to a big kid's cool room?  What is your favourite element in a big kid's room?