5 Ways Your Lifestyle Might Affect the Natural Stone You Choose

The home décor choices we make tend to reflect our personalities and lifestyles. To this effect, your choice of natural stone for your floors and counters should be made taking into consideration more than just functionality. The sheer diversity of natural-stone choices ensures you will be able to find the right one to suit not only your budget, but also your particular lifestyle. Here are some examples that explain how stone can fit into your life. 1. Busyness Though most types of stone need about the same level of maintenance, some need more than others. Natural stone such as marble requires considerable maintenance. If you lead a busy lifestyle, granite may be a better choice for your kitchen and bathroom counters. Once granite is properly sealed upon installation, keeping it clean and protected is a simple matter of spraying and wiping with a safe-on-stone granite cleaner. Travertine is another stone requiring a higher level of maintenance that may not be conducive to homeowners who are constantly on the go. Quartz does not need to be sealed, but you do still need to make sure to clean it with a specially formulated quartz cleaner. 2. Finances The low price of vinyl and laminate materials make them very tempting to many homeowners. However, in the long run, natural stone tends to be a smarter investment because it adds value to the property and is more durable. Granite kitchen counters virtually last forever as long as you keep them clean with a stone-safe granite countertop cleaner and seal them frequently with high-quality granite sealer. 3. Family Safety Homeowners who are raising children often think about laminate and cork flooring materials for bedrooms and play areas, but a more sensible solution would be to choose large area rugs and play mats to place on top of natural-stone tiles that have a slip-resistant finish. You also need to remember to avoid polishing stone floors, as they can become dangerously slippery. As children grow and develop, they will learn on their own to be more careful when they play on harder surfaces. 4. Desire to Help Local Economies Fancy natural-stone choices are not limited to Italian marble and Egyptian limestone. If you are looking for construction materials that have been extracted from American quarries, you will be pleased to know many of the natural-stone tiles and slabs installed in homes across the United States come from regions across the Tennessee and Ohio valleys as well as from Arizona, California, and Georgia. Also, there is a reason New Hampshire is known as the Granite State. 5. Design Appeal When it comes to decorating your home, you will always make the right choice with natural stone. The wet look of dark marble tiles is perfect for modern décor, the raw finish of slate highlights rustically decorated interiors, and the elegance of granite countertops has become the new standard of designer kitchens. Natural stone such as travertine has textures that look great in both indoor and outdoor spaces. Whatever your lifestyle and ideas for indoor decoration, you can find a type of natural stone that speaks to your needs. When caring for natural-stone countertops, you’ll also want to make sure to polish them regularly with a stone-safe granite polish. If you’re looking for cleaning, sealing, and polishing products that are safe to use on granite, marble, travertine, and other types of natural stone, get in touch with Granite Gold® today at 1-800-475-STONE.