Guide
Travertine, in Small Doses
Six travertine pieces, from a hurricane lamp at €44.99 to a pair of oak side tables at €549. A pale, pitted stone that warms a dark room without taking it over.
Travertine is the stone I reach for when marble feels too polished. It is pale and warm, somewhere between sand and honey, and its surface is full of small holes and lines that make it look old even when it is new.
In a warm, dark room a little of it goes a long way. A whole travertine coffee table can make a room feel like a hotel lobby. A dish, a pair of bookends or a candle holder gives you the same texture as a quiet counterpoint to dark wood, velvet and brass.
Where to use it
Put it where light falls on it. Travertine is at its best under a lamp, where the pits in the surface throw tiny shadows. On a side table next to an armchair, on a mantelpiece, on a shelf among books: anywhere at hand height where you see it up close.
Pair it with something dark. Travertine next to walnut or a deep painted wall looks rich; travertine next to white walls and pale oak just looks pale.
Mixing it with other stone
It sits comfortably beside marble as long as one of them clearly leads. There is more on balancing stone, wood and textiles in mixing natural materials, and a few marble pieces in brass and marble candle holders.
Common questions
- Does travertine stain?
- It can. Travertine is porous and full of small holes, so red wine, oil and coffee will mark an unsealed surface. On small objects that hardly matters; on a table top, use coasters and wipe spills quickly.
- Will the pieces match each other?
- Not exactly, and they are not supposed to. Several of these say outright that the colour and markings vary from piece to piece, because each one is cut from a different bit of stone.
- Will these ship to me?
- Three come from La Redoute's Dutch shop and three from Westwing's Dutch shop. Both deliver in the Netherlands. Each piece says where it ships before you click.