The Insider: Carving Out a New Look in Luxury

Heavyweight design movements — move over. Here’s one that pays homage to a natural geological phenomenon that’s also an iconic, versatile and everlasting material. It’s marble — and you’re about to see it with fresh eyes. This newest launch is a suite of marble furniture, vanities and tubs — solid-stone confections made in a breathtaking array of marbles. At Ann Sacks, stone has always been on offer as tile and most recently as slabs and demi slabs, suiting all sorts of projects, inside and out. But the new vanities, occasional tables, consoles and tub present stone in a vivid new light: dimensional, tactile and provocative. It’s hard not to feel awe when seeing an ancient stone reimagined for a modern home.

The transition from 2D offerings to sculptural furnishings was natural, if creatively challenging, reports DeeDee Gundberg, Ann Sacks' Chief Designer. She and colleagues were discussing how best to furnish a future showroom and they thought: 'We can make these ourselves!' From that insight two collections were born, giving designers and homeowners the ability to develop a monumental addition to their home.

“Stone furniture offers a different experience than a stone countertop or having stone tile or slab in your shower. You're sitting with it, you’re moving around it, you've got your drink on it, you're living with it,” says Gundberg. “It's amazing to me that it comes out of the earth this way.”

Most often relegated to surfaces, stone has a rich history in furnishings and special considerations to keep in mind. Here, presented alongside the news offerings, are four insights on a life lived alongside stone.

An Investment Piece – But Make It FUN

The Genevieve Collection
Shoppers are often duped into thinking that a purchase meant for the long term should be safe — dare we say, boring. If you’re ponying up for a true designer clutch, you’re thinking brown, black, navy…. a subdued staple. But take note from designers and aesthetes alike: You won’t tire of something precious. (This is why Loewe has emerald and crimson on offer.) Such was the thinking behind the trio of table profiles of the Genevieve Collection, bravely launched in Rosso Levanto, a marble of deep burgundy with dramatic white veining made all the more vivid by the profile’s geometric pleats, alongside three other statement stones.

Originally modeled in a solid color, Gundberg says the development team asked, “what happens when you add crazy veining to this ribbed shape and when we saw it we were blown away. We thought: You can’t not do this. It's that good!” Integrity is granted — each of the marbles is a real keeper, with remarkable veining to heighten the effect of the precision-cut profile. Who says an investment piece has to be forgettable?

Living In Maximal Minimalism

The Thurman Collection
Have you heard of "middlemalism"? Not a typo — just a micro-trend that posits the halfway point between minimalism and maximalism is the just-right aesthetic du jour. Gimmicky, sure, but there’s a point there — the low-stakes battle between minimalism and maximalism lumbers on partially because it makes for a fun article (guilty as charged!), but it flattens a pair of nuanced aesthetics down to a catch phrase and misses the point — most sophisticated rooms tap into both camps, call it middlemalism or not.

Here’s a beautiful execution of such: three tables called Thurman streamlined in design and rendered in one of five transcendent stones, allowing the colorations and veining to strut. Each one, either blue limestone or marble — Athens Silver Cream, ivory Amelie, Lilac, green Nubo Verde, and the aforementioned Rosso Levanto, are geologic masterpieces, bringing maximal enjoyment to a simple and monumental form.

Treating Your Home as a True Sanctuary

The Ophelia Bathtub
You are a Roman empress with your own balneae — a private bath away from the public thermae, in a culture that prized bathing vital to life itself. Still today we speak of bathing rituals but few bathtubs seem to tap into the sacred like this one does. Ophelia is first carved from a single block of Verde Serpa Portuguese marble by artisans skilled at capturing the landscape of stormy gray hues just so, and rendering them in exaggerated, hand-carved horizontal ribs. Then, precision cutting technology is used to refine those tactile folds and a curved lip designed specifically to hold one’s reclined head.

The jaw-dropping sum total of the labor and artisanship was unveiled at the Kitchen and Bath show in Las Vegas earlier this year and there was a steady stream of fans queued up to photograph, caress and admire her.

The Joy of Admiring & Adoring

The Evelyn and Ander Collections
Metamorphic stone such as marble is millions of years old — literally. Name anything in your home that can even compare, it’s preciousness if off the charts. A pair of sink consoles speaks to this. One, Ander, intensifies the specialness of its marble, boldly flaunting its integral beauty with vivid pleats and a metal, frame-like base that supports it like an offering. Look, see! In Vecchia, the warm cream and rich caramels are sprinkled with dabs of whisper pink and bolts of black.

Evelyn’s approach is sweeter, a soft form you can cup in your palms, curved edges and soft sides, a cheerful shape with fluted, tapered legs and a vintage European sensibility. Taps can lean into the charm or add a touch of modernity, your choice.

For maximum impact, heed the talk among designers and go tone-on-tone, choosing a slab of the same color stone as the foundation for the room. Who doesn’t want more of a good thing?