Terrazzo and other expensive beautiful floor finishes
I’ve been a bit obsessed with Terrazzo since I saw it on the floor of a friend’s kitchen in Islington ten years ago – she’d inherited it lucky thing. I’d not fully cottoned onto Terrazzo before then. Anyway, it’s sort of back in fashion with a vengeance – quite recently Max Lamb designed a version of the material that is on the floor and walls of the Maison Kitsune shop in Paris (and now even some of the clothes). It looks flipping brilliant…
…And you’ll probably have seen it around in other tasteful places and on other tasteful products. I know I’ve seen the Terrazzo look on ceramics somewhere. Anyway, the point of all this is I like a bit of concrete flooring with coloured bits in and – long story sorry – have you seen the interiors of the Carlo Scarpa designed Olivetti showroom in Venice with the swoony everything but especially the floors? They’re not terrazzo no, but a mix of concrete with the aggregate bits in (my favourite type) AND concrete with coloured bits of Murano glass shards embedded in! This I’ve never knowingly seen.
I know without even visiting that place that I want to live in it. On a scale of one to 10, what do you reckon the chances are that coloured Murano glass in some poured concrete is a budget choice?
Love the stuff! Did many a bar top in terrazzo, and my last job as one who worked was to put it in as a loooong kitchen worktop which then flowed into a kitchen table top with an angle lamp seamlessly drilled through it. It is still something I mentally covet on a pretty much weekly basis and it was over 7 years ago.. sad really. I am now trying to design my own kitchen, and I suspect DIY store ‘Own Make ‘Terrazzo Effect’ cut lino would be the closest I could financially mimic. Now that would be a real visual treat!
I feel really weird about terrazzo – growing up in Italy it was everywhere (most apartment blocks will have it at least in the shared areas, and most people in the city live in apartment blocks!) so to me it’s got this weird old-fashioned feel. But thinking about it now and looking at pictures it is pretty – if only it didn’t remind me of the early 90s so much!
Some of them look fantastic in the right places, but this may not be for everyone. Thanks for sharing!
This sounds a lot like my love story with Venetian stucco plaster
It looks amazing it kind of looks old fashioned but at the same time looks so stylish, really love it, so superb, thanks for sharing it!