I have been remiss in my blogging. In my defense, I did successfully complete my doctoral comprehensive exams (which I may have noted earlier), which took up January through March. We’re also finishing a $35 million capital campaign and preparing for our big event (to raise $600K in a single evening) which is in two weeks.
So, work has been quite busy. I do have this week off as part of my need to prepare one house to potentially get it on the market … though I remain torn on timing. I may try if for three months and then yank it if it starts to become a stale listing with so many in College Park on the market.
However, we still have a few loose ends to tie up at on the outside renovation at the new house (which is almost a year mine now, so not so new really).
Slate tile for the front porch and walk way is on my mind.
I orginally chose the multi-Raja: 
. However, the samples from the quarry came back very pastel pink and green. I almost wonder if they sent dessert Raja by mistake, which the website shows as:
. The door is a rich (slightly yellow, could use a little more black but will stay as is for now) red door. And the siding is a deep moss green. I like them but once they were up, the slate that seemed most appropriate would have to limit red to avoid clashing, not have too much green to avoid an almost entirely green palette (next to the grass), and probably should have more blue and/or gold.
Yet I cannot find blue slate from the source I was given. Rustic gold seems to have a good bit of blue and some yellow.
Brazillian black (will it really be black?) looks like this, which seems blue to me: 
Brazillian multi-color may be going too green in tone: 
What about mixing: and ? These are Rustic gold and Brazillian black?
Tile shouldn’t be this hard.
The house colors (the second green photo is truer):
I am in need of feedback so if any of my NYT Dream Home Diaries buddies are reading, please jump in …
Thanks!
MAY UPDATE … TO SEE HOW IT ALL TURNED OUT, CLICK HERE: http://geral64.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/tabula-rasa/
Filed under: dream house renovation and construction
provided the “black” slate is as it appears to be from the photos I would go with that, though I like the gold as well. mixing them could look nice but I imagine for optimum effect you would need to plan out the layout fully. I mean, I don’t think you’d just want a checkerboard effect, and “random” arrangements can take some artifice to achieve. this is my reasoning in going with the black–seems simpler!
What about bluestone?
Oh. somehow I didn’t read the whole post, lol. Sorry. Brain freeze…. I like the Brazilian Black best of the choices you posted. Slate has some natural variation which will be really elegant in the black with your green and deep red.
Rustic Gold is my choice. It’s got that yellow in the red thing, some black but not too much (you don’t I think want three close to primary colors all in that area) and it will look really nice with the green siding which I imagine is a color you deeply love Who wouldn’t? it rocks, and it’s the color of my guest bedroom walls…
– signed as a Dream Home Diary ex-pat
Hi gang: An update on the slate front. It’s a little long as I wanted to give the background and to address your suggestions because you were kind enough to spend the time and energy to respond.
This is the last thing (aside from a few punch list items the GC has to do) and we’re working to a contract and price (and my dwindled budget).
Originally I’d asked for blue fieldstone but he could not get that. Then I thought, well, blue slate would be fine. I have it at my condo inside and love it. I decided on 24s and 12s.
Turns out it was not that simple. The vendor he sent me to had four colors on display (I found out from the manufacturer’s website, they have more varieties, which you saw in the post). But they only have 12 and 16. Yes, the 16s could be cut to 8s but my charming GC (who will not be doing the interior reno for reasons such as I’ve given up counting days of construction since we’re at about nine months into the 45- to 60-day job) assures me that he’d have to double the cost. His vendor also has no real-size samples on site, has to order them from India (14-21 days) and then takes another two or three weeks deliver the actual order once you decide.
So, I found the only source in Central Florida (www.flooranddecoroutlets.com), which offers 16s and 8s. Done. Well, sort of. The only hitch is I have to choose from two varieties — either autumn gold (which is very green with a little yellow) or multicolor. Both were on sale, $2.19 a sf. Yippee!
I bought about 100 pieces home (and took them out of the car a couple of pieces at a time) to play with patterns and textures. My thought had been to have the front porch look like a “room” with the larger tiles and the walkway leading it up to it have more texture. Sort of a layering effect as you approach the house.
In the end, I think I’ve come up with 16s staggered on the porch. Laying them with consistent gridlines looked really boring and diagonal cutting doubles my cost (I know the drill by now). The walkway will alternate rows that are made up of three 16×16 squares with 4-8s, 1-16, 4-8s, next row 1-16, 4-8s, 1-16. The multicolor is truly that. But because I can mix and match and return, and I like what I did with the pieces I had, I’m going to go for it.
And, yes, I will absolutely be there the day it is laid. I’d be happy to lay it out, let them number them and proceed. High control needs? Well, honestly no, except when I don’t pay attention, the GC does goober things (like epoxy-glue $100 bronze numbers that are supposed to be on little pegs outset from the wall) directly to the siding, with a little seepage, no less. Yes, he’s getting new numbers and replacing the siding and starting over.
(Oh, and for what it is worth, Floor and Decor has a 30-day no-questions-asked return policy, out of the box, piece by piece. I explained what I was doing in my experiment, and that I may return the whole bunch, and he said no problem. I actually won’t return them. I’m doing slate on the back porch and in the house eventually, so I’ll just hang on to them.)
Now to your thoughtful comments (which I am so excited to get).
Belle: I was drawn to the black slate too because of simplicity but it didn’t come in 8s. so I thought, oh well, no big deal; it’s a tradeoff). As it turns out, it’s nearly black but a tinge of gray (since I can see all the stock on hand, and they have them stacked to a warehouse size ceiling). Then the store rep informed me that they have to be sealed which changes the color. He sprayed with water to show me. They turned completely black. I brought some home to see if it might work anyway, and it sort of looked like I’d paved with asphalt like a driveway. I was disappointed. So I went for the other two options. And I agree, I checkerboard would look goofy. I was looking for texture but not that texture! And I was on the same page with you re: black until I experimented.
Pamela: I love the idea of bluestone, which I guess is expensive because it’s not native to Florida? Charming GC said no to that after we nixed the field stone he also couldn’t get in the pricing stage. Now of course I’m working to that budget so my options have become limited. What fun I’m having, lol. And where did blue slate go? I know it exists. I’ve seen it. I have some of it. Floor and Decor has many varieties. But black is as close to blue as I can get, and once sealed, as mentioned, does indeed turn black and look like pavement.
Wendy: Rustic gold is close to F&D’s autumn but it goes very green, particularly when sealed. The only reason I didn’t choose it is because the house, the walk and the yard become one color. I also agree about three primaries. I did a kitchen like that once in a tiny apartment in the 80s, yikes.
Thanks for the comments on the paint. My GC hates it. Mom has learned to live with it. It has been suggested that it’s too dark for Florida (Ken the builder). However, since the Hardi is atop concrete block the house stays naturally (sort of unnaturally) cool even at the height of the day. I have the thermostat set at 76 and the air didn’t go on yesterday even though it was 90 outside.
I love the green, but we may be in the minority, Wendy. Well, the neighbors are thrilled. I’m sure they figure: At least it’s not flamingo pink block any more. I was thinking it fit into the woodsy notion of mission style paint colors, and I personally didn’t want brown, beige, tan, taupe or light green. Most houses seem to be those colors if they aren’t Key West style.
And there’s a bonus: It’s the same color as the gunk that grows on Florida houses every year, so you’ll hardly see it between cleanings.
I actually saw the color on downtown condos (with a very complicated color palette), drove by for weeks admiring it on my way to work, and then asked the condo GM to help me identify it. Their paint store (Color Wheel if you’re in Florida) was happy to oblige. The red came from that palette too but I have to say it’s a little yellower than I thought or than it looks in the can. I think it needs to be a slightly blacker red. But for now I’ll live with it and see. It may become eggplant one day, who knows?
Thanks to all of you for writing and offering advice. I don’t have the camera cord with me and I don’t have the docking station for the laptop so I can’t download some pix of my Experiments with Tile. But I’ll do so soon.
Thanks for stopping by! g