I had the fortune of redoing and reshaping and renovating the bath-space in my room.
And I faced the usual challenges and questions that any interior design project poses.
Having experienced the slipperiness of non-slippery or anti-slip vitrified tiles or bathroom tiles elsewhere, I had to decide upon the flooring material very carefully.
Earlier my bath space was done with red mirror-finish granite. In the >29 years of stepping on this mirror-finish floor I remembered having slipped twice and having a bad fall on one occasion. In an ideal life, and on ideal flooring, I should never have slipped or fallen. Thankfully, the mishaps didn’t result in any serious injury.
So yes, I had to decide upon the flooring material for my bath-space carefully. Here’s what I installed.
It’s been some days of stepping and walking on this bath floor, and I already feel very good about what I chose and what we’ve done.
The Stupid Cult Of Mirror Finish
A few decades back, in India, white marble and its variants, and a surface with mirror-finish, were one of the luxuries for folks doing up their houses and offices.
That marble with mirror-finish inspired other flooring material; most significantly Glazed Tiles, and later what we came to call Vitrified Tiles, ushered in mirror-finish surface at cheaper rates in the market. The desire for mirror-finish allowed these tiles to be installed for flooring in all sorts of spaces.
And after much use, mirror-finish also became non-luxurious in a way. Common place. Non-luxurious. Boring. Even down market, especially when it came to choosing vitrified tiles.
Why do I call it the stupid cult?
The Visual Sense & Other Senses
In vitrified tiles, we now get many other surface finishes and textures even, other than mirror-finish. All printed. All repeated using certain machine-driven processes.
Everyone, who is making a certain space, given whatever budget, wants to make it as pleasing and as beautiful as possible.
And like it or not, our Visual Sense dominates plenty of our choices. Once these choices are incorporated, they are there for a really long time.
It wouldn’t be incorrect to say the visual sense often overpowers other senses that are in play when making choices.
Mirror-finish appealed or even now appeals to the visual sense of most folks.
But what about the sense of touch? What about the sense of touch working under our feet? What do our soles feel? Do they play a role in determining what is beautiful?
Mirror-finish misled us, just as plenty of fashion does. Mirror-finish fed our visual sense but misled other senses. Visual sense may have been satiated but other senses were starved.
I made this choice for flooring my bath-space. This is what I call Sandy Surface finish, only possible since I used granite. You can also name a surface-finish of vitrified tiles as Sandy Surface finish but it will only be a name for the purpose of making ‘sales’, not necessarily a great floor.
You may probably be able to notice in the picture that it is not a mirror-finished surface. Non-mirror finish surface. SANDY SURFACE. No, it is not Matte Surface finish that they are bombarding us with in the ads. It is Sandy. Your feet will know when you step on it and your eyes will corroborate what your feet would feel.
Why do I call it SANDY?
Visually, it offers somewhat a sand-like feeling. And to my soles it feels so much like sand. And it proves to be very grippy to step on, even with water on it.
Terrific choice for bathroom flooring or even for other spaces.
Serve your eyes, serve the soles of your feet, and enjoy stepping with confidence on such a surface as a bonus.
Do you have a project where you are looking at great flooring options? Try Sandy Surface granite. We can help you.
Get in touch with Mr. G S Soni
Mobile: +91 98250 15546
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