From the Editor: CSTD Summer has show recaps, industry trends

Two of the bigger stone and tile shows are now concluded, The International Surfaces Show and Coverings, which allows us here at Contemporary Stone & Tile Designto see some of the possible future trends in the industry.

While quartz continues to be a popular choice for surfaces, and doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon, (See our previous issue on the trends in quartz in the Spring 2018 issue), natural stone still holds strong. Because of the lowering of the cost of quarrying machinery equipment, such as diamond wires, the cost to quarry natural stones such as quartzite has gone down. The stone now has seen an uptick in popularity at tradeshows and with designers. With the high durability of quartz surfacing, and its ability to mimic white marble, it may overtake it in popularity, but white marble is still a hot ticket item. For a look at some of the products featured at the Coverings show, see page 8 of this issue.

In regards to natural stone, we also take a look in this edition at ways natural building stone was used to create a beautiful home and commercial building. We focus on a Texas ranch on page 10 and a healing garden at a medical center on page 18.

On page 22, we interview Dawn D. Totty, a 15-year interior design veteran who discusses how she got into the industry, the trends in New York City verses the south, and the use of stone and tile in her designs. We then feature a mosaic tile round up, showing different mosaic tiles and trends we are seeing in the industry right now, on page 26. Then on pages 28 and 32 we cover two different uses of mosaic tile. The former using mosaic tile for an outdoor pool and spa area, while the latter uses it in an amphitheater in Nashville, TN.

If there are any topics you would like to see in Contemporary Stone & Tile Designor anything you wish for us to dig further into, make sure to reach out to us on our new Facebook page, www.facebook.com/cstdmag where we will continue to discuss and feature news and articles helpful to architects and designers.

Finally, if you ever are interested in being interviewed for our Q&A section and use stone and tile in your work, feel free to reach out to me at kameryj@bnpmedia.com. Thank you for your continue readership and we look forward to working with you for the rest of the year.