Romancing the stone

Sonali Aggarwal

KLG or the Kota Lovers Group comprises all those who have confessed their secret love for the humble stone. Among all its pompous and chikna contemporaries vying for attention, Kota stone stands apart for its polite and comforting demeanour. 

For most couples making their dream house, deciding upon the flooring materials becomes quite a challenge. While a husband wakes up happily one fine morning, having closed the decision in favour of the expensive but fashionable Italian marble, the wife is all ready to scour the tile galleries for the huge variety in prints and mere waala colour! Oscillating between the many criteria for choice, many a couple haplessly turn in to their architects & interior designers for direction.  Here’s why you should join KLG:

The trend

The trend today is of contemporary interiors with a dash of traditional Indian vibe. But at the same time, a modern Indian is daring to attempt the unconventional, to be different! In such times, the re-interpreted avatar of Kota stone comes across as quite a find. 

Relegated to an unpopular position among the elite and the opulent for many a years, Kota stone has earned the status of  an ‘antique’ by now. But, as luck would have it, ‘antique’ is in vogue now. In its raw pure form, this limestone is quarried in many earthy tones. Hues of grays, greens, blues, greenish blue and bluish green, shades of brown and honey, almost pink…present an amazing palette in rustic category. 

A multi-talented star

Versatile and unassuming by nature, Kota stone fits easily into the roles of both a hardy tough one for exterior application as also a cozy fine-grained companion inside the house. 

A designers delight

Available in smooth and rough finishes, it is easy to achieve a variety within continuity. Rough river finish gels very well in courtyards along with greenery, though it can be used in interiors too, for a very authentic look.

Mirror mirror on the floor 

In the interiors, once dressed with diamond polish, all it takes to keep it so, is the daily mop. Such a low maintenance requirement for many many years would be any house owner’s dream.

It's the 'coolest dude' around

Once home, simply kick off the shoes in summers and walk bare, reminiscing good old childhood days at Nani house

A child’s best pal

Being non-porous, Kota stone offers quite a hygienic surface. It allows a child to slip and skid only as much as it wants to. 

Did anyone say pocket friendly

Being a regional stone and available in ready-to-lay tile sizes, it is amongst the most economical of stone floorings. 

In retrospect

The ups and downs in the journey of Kota stone illustrate a sad reality — we seem to have been more adaptive of anything foreign rather than ‘Made in India’. The good part is, we are out of that phase now and ready to celebrate our Indianness.

I further believe, it is the connotations we attach with objects blindly, which prove to   be a deterrent. How foolish are we to think that objects can define our status.

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” — Michelangelo

The 'Wabi-sabi'way

Another asset of this kind of flooring is that every next piece of a lot comes with some itsy-bitsy variation in colour, texture or grain. If left unsorted, a beautiful and unique pattern emerges naturally. This is a recognised form of art in traditional Japanese aesthetics- 'wabi-sabi' — a world view centered on the acceptance of the imperfections. 

Just like birds of a feather flock together, a material reflects its true beauty amongst a palette of its own kind. A Kota stone flooring sets best in a theme of the rustic, the raw and the unfinished.  

— The writer is a Chandigarh-based architect and planner, Space & Vision