Behind the Design: Lava Stone, Something Luxurious and Unusual for Your Home

I am never not designing. I could be lying by a pool, walking through a market or, as I was a few weeks ago, standing on a factory floor in Bali watching molten rock become something extraordinary enough to place at the heart of a client's home. Wherever I am, I am looking at surfaces, finishes and light and asking the question that always draws my eye. Why does that material look exceptional in that setting? What colour is it, how is it used and what is it paired with?

That question is what led me to Lava Stone Design. It started with an image I could not stop looking at, a wood-panelled bathroom I found on Mr Tripper's Instagram page, with a vanity in the most unexpected green sitting against dark timber panelling and warm brass fittings. It was not really about the green stone on its own, it was how well it was paired, the timber, the brass, everything chosen with such care. I had to know more about lava stone and the design limitations and opportunities.

The image, found on @MrTripper Instagram page, that first sent me looking into lava stone

I was excited to find that one of the finest producers is based in Canggu, Bali, where I would be in the coming weeks. I could not resist seeing the process for myself. This is the first in what I want to make an ongoing thread on the blog, "Behind the Design", where I share the studios, factories and people behind the materials I choose, because the story behind a material and what it is paired with is part of what makes a room beautiful.

Another reason this material excites me goes beyond how it is used. Lava stone isn't unheard of, but it is rarely used in a way that feels truly luxurious. Most applications I have come across treat it as something practical or outdoor, never as the considered, beautiful centrepiece it deserves to be. I am always searching for materials like this, ones that have not yet found their way onto every mood board, because they are what let a home feel truly individual rather than familiar. A beautiful house is one thing. A house that feels unmistakably like you is another and that is the one I am always trying to help my clients build.

From raw stone to something transformed

Lava stone is, at its heart, rock drawn straight from the earth. Before any colour or gloss enters the picture, the raw slabs are simply that, dense, grey and rough, stacked against the factory wall like something waiting to be discovered rather than designed. I love how much devotion goes into turning something so raw into something so refined. The slabs are cut into shape, polished, glazed and then fired at extraordinary temperatures, around 1000 degrees Celsius, until they emerge transformed.

Raw lava stone slabs, before any colour or enamel is applied

To put that in perspective, a hot pan straight off the stove sits at around 200 degrees. A lava stone benchtop has already been through five times that heat before it ever reaches somebody's kitchen. That alone is enough to tell you why this material deserves real attention.

The strength beneath the beauty

I love natural stone and I always will. It will always have a place in my work. Lava stone is not a replacement for it, it is simply another option, one I reach for when a home wants more colour and more durability than natural stone can always offer.

I will be honest, lava stone isn't an inexpensive choice. It is a genuine investment and I always want my clients to understand why before they commit to it. For me, the answer comes down to one word: durability.

Because of that firing process, lava stone is close to indestructible. You can set a hot pan directly onto it without a second thought. It will not etch or stain from lemon juice, red wine or the everyday spills that a well-loved kitchen sees. That kind of everyday durability matters enormously to me.

This is where my design philosophy and this material meet perfectly. I am not interested in specifying something because it looks impressive for a single launch photo. I want my clients living inside their homes for decades to come and that means choosing finishes that grow more beautiful with time and perform under pressure, quite literally in this case.

Endless vibrant colour and design options

A fraction of the colour range, drawn from the RAL colour chart.

I watched a striking, vibrant green tabletop being finished for a home in New York, the colour so saturated and the gloss so deep that it caught every bit of light in the room.. It is exactly the kind of statement piece I love, bold enough to anchor a room entirely on its own. Seeing it made me think immediately about what I would put around it, a comfortable dining chairs, an aged brass pendant, timber with real grain, because a piece that bold deserves a considered setting rather than a stage of its own.

A vibrant green table top, finished for a home in New York

Edge profiles are wonderfully forgiving too, opening up soft, sculptural shapes that take real skill to achieve. While I was there, I saw a beautifully rounded, organic edge profile being prepared for a table destined for a Hermès store, proof of just how sculptural this material can become in the right hands.

A rounded, organic edge profile, prepared for a table destined for a Hermès store. I wonder what colour it will become?

Integrating a sink into the slab is effortless, leaving a clean, unbroken line that feels as though the whole piece was poured as one rather than built.

For a designer, that combination is rare. Most of the time, you choose between something beautiful and something practical. Lava stone never really asks you to compromise and that is exactly the kind of material I want close at hand when I am building a room's whole material story rather than choosing one piece in isolation.

Where I can already see it living

Standing in that factory, I kept thinking about the women I design for, the ones who have reached a point where they are ready to create a space that is uniquely their own. Lava stone is a suggestion for something a little different, something bold and colourful. It might live in an ensuite, part of the morning and evening rituals rather than something only glimpsed occasionally. It might anchor a kitchen built for entertaining or become a dining tabletop in a colour that resonates with the room around it. What I love is that the applications, colours and designs are endless, so the material can be truly customised to a client's home and enjoyed daily rather than saved for special occasions.

What I appreciate most

Days later, what stays with me is that visiting the factory did not just give me a new material to recommend. It reminded me why I love this part of my work. True beauty is never only about how something looks on a mood board and it is never only about one material either. It comes down to understanding what a material is, how it is made and what it will ask of the people living alongside it, just as much as understanding what it should be placed beside so the whole room feels as though it was collected rather than assembled.

That is the thread I want to keep pulling on with this series. Behind every beautiful surface there is a process, a place, a story worth knowing and often a quiet conversation with everything sitting next to it too. I will keep sharing beautiful products with you here as I find them.