Emerging Trends in Decorative Natural Stone

Natural Stone sales at all market levels remained strong throughout 2020. Retail entry level stone sales continued to show stability in colors and styles that have been popular for the last decade, simple mosaics and neutral colors. Moving up to transitional and luxury housing, more dramatic styles and shapes have taken hold. Arabesque, Fish Scale and Geometrics have all established a strong market niche.

For 2021, watch for more dramatic color mixes in all types of mosaics. Softer colors are trending in other materials with yellows and greens replacing the dominant blues in design magazines. This is causing neutral stones with muted taupe shades that can blend across all color palettes to grab a share of the stone tile market.

Square dimension floor tile is coming back as well. After 12×24 stone tiles replaced 18×18 as the dominant format, large format square and rectangular porcelain tiles spread rapidly from Southern Urban markets into many parts of the U.S. In 2021, natural stone distributors are seeing more demand for 24×24 tiles as well as 30 x 30 and 36 x 36. Designers are growing bold in using larger formats, and manufacturers are innovating quickly to meet the trend.

Recognizing the general growth patterns of design trends, expect to see large format tiles being a significant part of the natural stone market stretching into the next decade.

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