Surface design, considered.

The slow return of the considered surface

For decades, surfaces were an afterthought in residential design — chosen toward the end of a project, often from a sample board, with neither the time nor the budget that the more visible architectural decisions received. That has reversed. The contemporary specifier begins with the surface, and the rest of the room negotiates around it.

The reasons are largely technical. Slab-format porcelains have made it possible to wrap a kitchen island in a single continuous material; matte glazes have given ceramics the depth that only stone used to offer; digital printing has made it impossible to tell, from across a room, whether you are looking at travertine or its convincing engineered cousin.

What we cover under "Surfaces"

Our Surfaces editorial spans every material that meets the eye in a finished interior — ceramic, porcelain, natural stone, microcement, plaster, terrazzo, engineered slabs and the increasingly tactile world of three-dimensional wall finishes.