A very popular makeover in the home lately has been a travertine bathroom using travertine bathroom tiles. I have a friend who did everything in travertine and it looks great. He used different shades and hues for different area with the vanity top being one shade, the floor was darker, and the shower was a nice light hue of travertine stone because he didn’t want to feel closed in. His bathroom has a lot of natural light so it worked real well.
Travertine is a stone that was popular in the building of Rome during its greatest days. Many people relate marble to Roman building but in reality this was reserved for expensive statues and civic and religious buildings. Most of the construction was actually done with travertine tiles and stone work. In fact, the great Roman Coliseum was constructed almost entirely out of travertine. It is the largest travertine building in the world.
This stone is not very hard since it is a sedimentary rock that is formed from layers of minerals laid down in the bottom of a hot water pool over eons. The color of the sediment was determined by the minerals that had leached into the hot water rising from the earth’s crust. This is why travertine has many different hues. A bathroom is a great place to experiment with different shades because it looks very natural for different items to have a slightly different color. This is one reason why travertine bathrooms are so popular today.
One thing to remember is that travertine bathrooms are constructed of this soft sedimentary rock which means it is naturally porous. While the sedimentary layers are forming it is natural for air pockets to get trapped and leave voids in the rock structure. These voids can do two things. They can actually leak water through and they can trap water and dirt thus making the tiles look dingy. There is a misnomer going around that there is such a thing as travertine marble bathroom tile. Marble and travertine are two different stones. Although they both start as sedimentary rock, the marble is forced farther underground during its formative time and thus is acted upon by higher temperatures and pressures. This actually changes the physical structure of the stone turning it into a metamorphic rock. This means all the voids and holes have been squeezed out of the structure and it is dense and hard. Marble tiles are able to be used without sealing because of this structural fact.
Travertine tile bathrooms, on the other hand, need to have all the stone work sealed to be sure it is impermeable to water. Also, counter tops made with this stone often times have the dips and holes filled in with a filler compound that matches the color of the rock in order to give a smooth finish.
If you are looking for a new bathroom style then definitely look at some travertine bathroom pictures and get some ideas on how it would look in your home. There is nothing like the old world charm of travertine tiles to give you a Roman bath feel to your contemporary bathroom.
