Why You Should Consider Translucent Stone
Stone surfaces are a beautiful, elegant way to add character to your home or business. Translucent stone is particularly prized for its ability to allow light to pass through, bringing a beautiful, natural, warm glow to any space. Backlit translucent stone slabs create stunning surfaces that are sure to draw the attention of everyone in a room. Even when unlit, translucent stone is beautiful in its natural state. Whether backlit with LEDs or with natural light, translucent stone is a sure-fire way to make your design stand out as truly unique.
Benefits of Translucent Stone
The benefits of translucent stone are that it brings light, color, and a warm natural aesthetic into your home or business with unique surfaces designed to brighten your space. Translucent stone creates an effect similar to stained glass; however, unlike glass, translucent stone lights a room with natural, earthy colors in breathtakingly unique streaks and swirls. Stone is also much more durable than glass or other surfaces, making it a safer, stronger alternative for brightening your space.
Where Installed Translucent Stone Shines
Because of their ability to be backlit, translucent stones are frequently used in light fixtures, art, counters and feature walls. For example, a backlit backsplash behind the shelves of a bar would highlight the contents of the shelves while adding a glowing, elegant atmosphere to the room. Even when unlit, translucent stone slabs can also be used to define spaces in the capacity of skylights, windows, and doors. The translucent stone allows light to pass through while maintaining privacy.
Backlighting Stone with LEDs Allows More Creativity
Before the advent of LEDs, designers used lightboxes to backlight stone. While lightboxes offer an even light, they are significantly thicker than the average countertop (requiring 3-4 inches of space beneath the stone), taking up space and making it difficult to light surfaces at unconventional angles. Smaller, more flexible light strings and LED strips allowed designers to backlight stone in any configuration, but smaller lights spread out over an area and caused uneven lighting. This meant areas of brighter light appeared surrounded by darker shadows. While this can be used to create an artistic effect, many designers prefer the even lighting offered by lightboxes. With the invention of the LED light panels, it's now possible to have both the flexibility of strip lights and the even lighting of a lightbox combine for a stunning design. LED panels are thin and flexible, but they provide an even light with no hotspots or shadows. The most popular stone at Francini used for backlighting has been quartzite.
Interested in Backlighting Translucent Stone for a Project?
Backlighting and underlighting of stone allows for a whole new aesthetic when designing a space. The list of opportunities is exciting. If you are interested in better understanding how backlighting stone works, or what a certain slab might look like when lit, we at Francini Inc. can help! Contact one of our slab galleries nearest you for details and to set up an appointment.