Choose Denser American Marble for Working Kitchens
Steven Schrenk
Polycor
Melinda McCoy is what you call the everyday home decorator.
Her Cape Cod style home, located in Ohio, isn’t filled with cookie cutter details or over-the-top designs. Instead, her home is known for its timelessness and practical beauty.
“I got tired of looking at magazines and Pinterest for inspiration,” McCoy said. “I’d find an idea I liked, then put it in my home and it didn’t look right. I like to make decisions with intention behind them.”
McCoy, the founder of House 214 Design, offers online courses and curates blog posts to help homeowners learn basic interior decorating tips.
Her love of homes with an old-world charm stems from childhood. Growing up in the South, McCoy spent much of her free time embarking on home tours, stepping inside of some of the most beautiful estates. It was there she fell in love with the utilitarian element of these older homes.
McCoy’s style preference isn’t much different today — for her, the key to creating a beautiful home starts with consistency and purpose.
Over the past 10 years, McCoy has added a master suite and brand-new kitchen onto her 1940 built home, but you might not know it if you took a tour.
“What was really important to me, was staying true to the roots of the home,” McCoy said. “That’s always the biggest compliment I get — when people walk in, they don’t know where the old house stops and the new house starts.”
McCoy’s intention to connect with the history of the home extends to her material choices.
In her kitchen she selected a marble countertop that could have easily been chosen by the original homeowners (and, in fact, if they had it would still look and feel as great as it does today). White Cherokee marble is an American stone with a soothing grey vein pattern that’s right at home with McCoy’s classic grey, white and black palette. It also has a higher density than European marble so it can stand up to all the baking, crafts and homework McCoy and her family do on its surface every day.
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Honed White Cherokee marble is the perfect antique surface for a remodeled, modernized turn-of-the-century kitchen.
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The space also features stainless steel appliances, subway tiles on the wall, stunning white schoolhouse pendant lighting, an antique kitchen cupboard, and wood antique butcher block.
“The kitchen really is the heart of the home,” McCoy said. “It’s the gathering space. I think people are really craving that and they want people to be together. Today, people are craving that feeling.”
The spacious center island has a honed surface that adds a touchable texture that complements her home’s old-world European farmhouse feel.
“I think people look at marble sometimes like everybody has it. People see it as trendy, but it’s not,” she said. “It’s something that’s been around forever. Marble has that timelessness to it because it has such a history and story to it. We thought it intertwined really well into our old home.”
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Honed White Cherokee marble is a durable classic in the kitchen. |
McCoy first came across Polycor on Instagram, and she immediately fell in love with their work.
Before using Polycor’s marble in her home, she visited the Georgia quarry to see the marble’s origins and how it is quarried.
“I’ve never been to a quarry before,” McCoy said. “Actually seeing it versus walking into a big slab warehouse — you see it in its element. We went to the stone yard, where they were cutting slabs. You get to see the whole process from start to finish — you see the narrative.”
McCoy, who has three children, said the marble is constantly in use. She loves that the marble doesn’t require a demanding upkeep routine.
Her advice for keeping the marble clean is soap and water. “I don’t use any other elements. It’s pretty simple,” she said. “Marble’s supposed to wear over time. It’s supposed to have a story to it. It gets better with how long you have it.”
For more information on Cherokee marble and a free marble care guide, visit www.polycor.com .