Marble Brings the Wow-Factor to a Small Powder Room

Designer Nicole Forina mixes sizes and shapes of tile

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“Typically for a powder room I wouldn’t use more than two types of tile, but you can always use different shapes/scale of tile in the same material,” designer Nicole Forina says. This design called for several sizes of lilac marble tiles. “Naturally, the penny tile felt like the right scale for the floor since the space is small.”

During an extensive renovation of a Short Hills home, which included this jewel box of a powder room, the fashion-forward client “knew she wanted lilac marble to be incorporated into the mix,” says Nicole Forina, principal of Nicole Forina Home in Tinton Falls.

Forina obliged by combining two beautiful stones in different sizes and shapes: lilac on the upper portion and Nero Marquina — a deep black marble with striking white veining — on the lower half. “My favorite part is how we incorporated brass liners to break up the ascension of one tile to another on the walls,” the designer says.

Besides the room’s standout tile, “all the other elements have a slight edge,” Forina says, “but are for the most part sleeker so as not to compete with each other.” Everything fell into place, she adds, with a floating, lacquered vanity and simple but glamorous accents.

To create interest and keep the walls from falling flat, “we used brass liners over half way up to divide the walls and maintain some lightness,” Forina notes.

The mirror and vanity have brass accents that pick up on the brass liner in the tiles. Says Forina: “The brass pops, but the matte black faucet and accessories are an easy introduction as they work so well with the Nero Marquina marble tile.”

The client, a lover of natural stone, was smitten with the outcome. “She has a great eye and was willing to take risks,” Forina says, adding that made their collaboration “totally seamless and the end product spectacular!”