Cultured Stone Design Ideas
When you want the best, but either you can't afford it or it might be too impractical to work with, go for the alternative that looks and performs almost as well. Thumbing through cultured stone design ideas in a decorating magazine or catalog, you'll see some thrilling projects that may have you convinced that impossibly heavy and expensive stone was employed in the construction.
Cultured stone is a facsimile of the real deal, cast in molds, manufactured out of Portland cement and lightweight aggregates and with iron oxide pigments to create color reproductions. Unless you hold it in your hand and feel the weight, you may find it difficult to pick the fake from the real thing with a visual examination. When it comes to cultured stone design ideas, the possibilities are endless.
With more than 90 types of high quality varieties available, including 20 different textures and 70-plus standard colors, cultured stone can fit into any decor. Consumers can even order custom colors if desired. Because it is extremely durable and practically maintenance-free, it can be used on the exterior as effectively as the interior.
Its light weight makes it appropriate for the home handyman to work with, and also means it is practical for a wider range of applications than the real product. Cultured stone design ideas can be accommodated where real stone ones can't, particularly if the latter is proving to be more expensive than the homeowner can afford, because the reproductions are around half the cost of the real ones.
Indoor ideas:
- Build yourself a rustic-looking stone fireplace. It's one of the more popular cultured stone design ideas because it turns a drab, uninteresting fireplace into a focal point that inspires decor for the rest of the room.
Apply cultured stone to an entire wall for a beautiful feature wall that surpasses a simple paint job.
Flooring, too, is a limitless possibility with cultured stone. Create a stunning cobblestone effect in your entrance hall or on your patio and amaze visitors with your originality.
Add some grandeur to your living room with stone pillars against the wall, flanking your favorite artwork and spot lit dramatically.
Add a cultured stone decorated bar to your basement and pretty soon, you'll be carting a billiard table in there to complete the picture!
Outdoor ideas:
- A beautiful stone garden wall to replace a crooked, rickety wood one can turn a back yard into a pretty and inviting space.
Imagine a cobbled driveway or garden bed borders with flowers and herbs spilling over the edges.
Build a stone wall to conceal unattractive necessities in your yard such as trash cans and pool pumps. It's amazing how cultured stone design ideas, being more affordable, can be put to use for such simple purposes, thereby creating far more pleasing results than a cheaper alternative.
Create an attractive pillar letterbox and do away with the old version sitting atop a single pole.
Stone can add a lovely dimension to a fishpond and you can even construct a water fountain to complement it.
Create an attractive facade on the front of your house. Apply cultured stone to exterior windowsills and door surrounds.
As you can see, cultured stone design ideas are endless and only limited by your own imagination. You don't have to be Fred Flintstone to enjoy being surrounded by the beauty of rock and stone, even if you are using manufactured ones that were not plucked from nature.
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