OBERLIN, OH -- The Marble Institute of America (MIA) has announced an expansion of the premier natural stone industry award program. The 2015 Pinnacle Awards competition will include two new categories: "Kitchen of the Year" and "Bath of the Year".

The new kitchen and bath categories will be in addition to the traditional categories for residential interior/exterior sponsored by GranQuartz, commercial interior and commercial exterior sponsored by Mapei, and renovation/restoration sponsored by Coldspring.

"With the boom in the use of natural stone for residential kitchens and baths domestically and internationally, we felt that adding the two specialty categories would be a natural extension for the competition," said Jim Hieb, Executive Vice-President of MIA. "With expansion into the most popular consumer stone categories, MIA hopes to significantly increase the number of kitchen and bath entries this year."

The winners of the "Kitchen of the Year" and "Bath of the Year" will be eligible to win the Grande Pinnacle Award, sponsored by Marmomacc, which carries with it a trip to Marmomacc, the world's largest stone show held each year in Verona, Italy.

The deadline for all categories in the Pinnacle Awards program is July 31, 2015. Details for entering can be found at http://www.marble-institute.com/awards/pinnacle-awards. Questions can be directed to Helen Distelhorst via email at hdistelhorst@marble-institute.com.