Marble can be tricky for inexperienced fabricators. It’s softer and more delicate than granite and other stones. The world’s most skilled craftsmen know the attributes of each individual stone and use their talents to bring out the unique beauty of each one. Boca do Lobo uses in its furniture designs 3 types of Marble stones: Estremoz, Calacatta and Nero Marquina.

Estremoz marble is a natural stone with Portuguese origins with a very fine grain and it may present some occasional light pink or brown coloured areas. Perfect for applications with a modern and contemporary design it’s mainly used for interior design projects. An extremely elegant marble, Estremoz may be used in various projects for interior design as staircases, precious floorings and facings, fireplaces, decorative objects and home decorations, stylish bathrooms and modern and contemporary kitchen designs and tops.

Calacatta Marble is distinctive with its thick, bold veining. Rather than the plentiful soft veins of a marble-like Carrara, Calacatta’s hallmark is fewer but more dramatic and unstructured veins. Overall the colour has a global appeal with designers and architects due to its soothing white background, veining, and colour tone. The whiter the background, the more expensive and desirable these marbles get.

The Nero Marquina is one of the most important marbles from Spain, having a very strong and well-established market both in Spain and throughout the World. It is considered a reference Spanish black marble, having conquered designers and architects from different corners of the World. An amazing look, with a deep and genuine black colour, even the white vein variation has a beautiful appearance, with the strong contrast between the dark black and the well-defined white vein.

Besides working with Marble stones, Boca do Lobo also uses the faux-marble technique in some of its most recent furniture designs. But what exactly is faux-marble?

Marbleizing or faux marbling is the preparation and finishing of a surface to imitate the appearance of polished marble. It is typically used in projects where the cost or weight of genuine marble would be prohibitive. Faux marble is a special case of faux painting used to create the distinctive and varied patterns of marble.

Other techniques for producing faux marble include Scagliola, an expensive process which involves the use of specially pigmented plasters, and terrazzo. Some professional faux finishers are very skilled and will use a variety of techniques to reproduce the colours, veining and lustre of real marble or other building materials. However, many decorators will merely suggest the appearance of marble rather than accurately imitate a particular stone.