A mountain range in the northern Tuscany region in Italy, the Apuan Alps harbours a unique wealth, having produced more marble than any place on earth. One exceptional type of marble exclusive and unique to these mountains located just outside of the city of Carrara is Calacatta marble.
A prized Italian marble, Calacatta is characterised by a distinct elegance and thick veins that carry more pronounced shades of grey, gold, and even burgundy. Compared to the city’s namesake Carrara marble, Calacatta is scarcer and features more dramatic vein patterns, making it popular among architects and designers for use in both residential and commercial spaces.
Over the years, the extraction of Calacatta marble from the Italian quarries and its manufacture have increasingly become more challenging for a number of reasons such as harsh seasonal conditions as well as logistics, resulting in high cost of the natural stone and making it even more precious than it already is and unaffordable to many.
Recognising the aesthetic significance and the aspiration of many to have marble kitchen benchtops for their homes, Smartstone has launched a new collection that offers a variety of Calacatta replicas in sintered stone.
In developing the palette, Smartstone aimed to include precise recreations of the most desirable marbles in the world and make the natural marble-look available to more consumers at a lower price point.
In the new Sintered Collection, six surfaces represent the natural beauty of Calacatta marble while offering the durability of sintered stone. Owing to the innovative and advanced print technology incorporated in the Smartstone sintering process, the collection delivers remarkable marble aesthetics and accurately mimics the unusual and naturally occurring veined Calacatta patterns.
The impressive resemblance of the Smartstone sintered stone surfaces to real Calacatta gives homeowners an opportunity to infuse marble luxury and sophistication without having to blow their budget and, at the same time, benefit from surface durability and over-all superior performance.
Smartstone’s Sintered Collection Calacatta marble recreations
Calacatta Bianco
From the affordable classic price range, Calacatta Bianco recreates a popular type of milk-white Calacatta marble characterised by fluid strong-to-fine grey veins. This surface comes in left and right versions and can be book matched.
Calacatta Lusso
Creating more drama and luxury, Calacatta Lusso literally translates to ‘Calacatta luxury’, a perfect description for this stunning sintered surface that combines gold, amber and grey veins sweeping across a grey-white background. From the Deluxe price range, this surface comes in left and right versions and can be book matched.
Calacatta Oro
As the name implies, Calacatta Oro is a replica of a gold-veined natural white marble. A luxurious veined option for kitchen benchtops, Calacatta Oro reinterprets the rich beauty of Italian Calacatta with strong veins of grey and gold on a lustrous white background. From the Deluxe price range, this surface comes in left and right versions and can be book matched.
Calacatta Viola
Also quarried in the Apuan Alps, Calacatta Viola is the most striking of all the Calacatta recreations offered by Smartstone in the Deluxe price range. Its distinct purple-violet vein colouration is unique, elevating the precious marble to an absolute aspiration for many homeowners and designers looking for a show-stopping centrepiece.
Calacatta Borghini
Another popular type, Calacatta Borghini is a warm and sophisticated marble with brown-grey veins on a creamy white background recreated by Smartstone in the collection. From the Deluxe price range, this surface comes in left and right versions and can be book matched.
Calacatta Verde
One of the more exquisite marbles quarried in Italy is the green Calacatta marble, recreated by Smartstone as Calacatta Verde (‘verde’ means green in Italian). Ideal for designs inspired by nature, Calacatta Verde showcases a stunning interplay of green veins, from moss to emerald to sage, blended with greys on a grey-white background. Calacatta Verde is from the Deluxe price range of surfaces with more luxurious and bolder vein patterns.
