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Caesarstone: The New Brochure

Last year I went to visit a house that had been designed on the basis of how our houses might look in the future – lots of smart technology  – mirrors that know what’s in our wardrobe and can suggest a top that might go with a pair of trousers – that sort of thing. It was sort of cool and sort of spooky at the same time. I imagine our children will find it completely normal.

In the kitchen, which was full of smart fridges which tell you when the milk has run out and ovens you can work with your phone, the counters were made from Caesarstone. And after we had looked at the house we all went out for dinner and I chatted to the Caesarstone people about their product.

designed to inspire brochure by Caesarstone

I had been aware of this composite material for a while but had always assumed that real stone was better. Because it was, well, stone. But it’s true that marble scratches and stains and granite is very expensive. Caesarstone, which is engineered from quartz (one of nature’s toughest minerals) and resin, is still stone but it has been deconstructed and re-assembled to produce a product that is tougher than stone and not porous – so it won’t stain. It still feels cold like stone though. 

Basically if you want the look of marble but have a tendency to chuck turmeric and red wine about and may not be totally on top of the resealing and cleaning then a composite material may be the answer.

statuario maxima by caesartsone
statuario maxima by caesarstone

But, it turns out, it’s a tricky product to market. You can’t buy direct from the manufacturer because the cutting and fitting is done by different people so prices may vary. And you need to work out not just how much you want, but how thick you want it to be and the shape of the edging. Which makes it all more complicated to buy and puts many people off.  

So Caesarstone wanted to come up with a way to help customers understand the product. And that way was going to be a shiny new brochure. But it was to be more like a magazine and, they wanted to know, would I help?

the new caesarstone brochure
the new caesarstone brochure

Jon Stanley, VP of marketing,  said to me:  “The stone industry is not always the easiest to navigate as a consumer, so Caesarstone wanted to provide something that gave greater clarity for those interested in how to buy engineered quartz for their home; from what you are buying in the first place, to how to select it and how it ends up as your kitchen worktop (or bathroom vanity, shower return etc etc).

“There’s plenty of inspiration in there and after a read you’ll be able to talk confidently about the relative style merits of a pencil edge versus a bullnose and if you can get your upstands and a splashback out of two slabs. All of the products are shown as a full slab of stone, 3 meters by 1.4 meters, as well as a close up of the pattern, so you can see just how beautiful they are. And there’s a handy diagram to show you how it can be cut for your kitchen too, depending on the layout.”

montblanc by caesarstonemontblanc by caesarstone
montblanc by caesarstone

I wrote two features for them on how to plan your kitchen – with diagrams of the different sorts of layouts –  and how to choose the colours and materials that are right for you. There is also a feature by their chief designer, Mor Krisher, about the whole design process.

So unlike most brochures that you pick up and discard there’s something to read in there as well. But the really clever bit is the photography. So often there’s a tiny picture that bears no relation to what the thing will actually look like when it’s  full size in your house. So they scanned the slabs and reproduced a lifesize section in the magazine so you can see exactly how big the pattern is. Then they took a picture of a full slab so you can see how that pattern might look across a whole worktop and that’s really vital because it’s only when you see it reproduced in full that you can tell if the size of the pattern is going to be right for you or how you expected it to be. I’ve had so many wallpaper samples where they send you a bit of stalk and you don’t get to see the flower or how the whole thing works together. 

frosty carrina by caesarstone
frosty carrina by caesarstone

All that is designed to help you narrow down your selection . Then you can ask for a free sample. Using the brochure is designed to help you make a shortlist so that you don’t kill the postman by ordering a tonne of stone.

So it’s a proper useful brochure. And I’m proud to have been involved with it. If you want a copy of it you can email them here [email protected]  and they will send you one. And there is a new, more industrial collection launching in May which I have seen and which looks amazing.

Also look out for pictures of their collaboration with Snarkitecture in Milan this week. Last year’s installation was reckoned to be one of the highlights of Salone. If you want to see before you buy – and who wouldn’t? – you can email them on the above address and make an appointment to visit their north London showroom. 

 statuario maximus by caesarstone
statuario maximus by caesarstone

And now a word about sponsored posts: 

Blogging is about creating content but how we earn our living doing that can be a contentious subject. All magazines and newspapers, since they began, have relied on advertising to pay the bills. Blogging, is no different. But when you pay for print you pay for the privilege of being able to turn the page if you don’t want to see the adverts. And who hasn’t flicked through 20 or so pages at the beginning to get to the features?

That is harder to do with a blog. The post is there and you can choose simply to read or not to read. I post five times a week as you know – it’s a fairly punishing schedule and there will be hits and misses within that. Some of you have managed your subscriptions so that you receive only one email a week – that makes it easier to skip the odd sponsored post if you want.

bianco drift by caesarstone
bianco drift by caesarstone

I try to avoid the cliché that I “only work with brands I like and think you will like too”, but that is basically the case. I turn down way more than I accept. But for the most part if I agree to work with a brand it is because I have already been writing about them for a while so it’s nice to be paid for something I already believe in. Or a service I have used and perhaps not written about but, again – and this is the crucial part – something that is part of my life.

The pay-off for this is that I don’t fill the pages with pop-ups asking you to subscribe, or muddle the images with advertising pictures that get in the way, or ask you to answer a question before you can read the rest of the post.

There are no advertisements. There is advertising content that I consider very carefully and taking a fee from those brands allows me to continue writing this blog so you can continue reading for free. If I charged you the price of a glossy magazine to read this then no I probably wouldn’t have to do any sponsored posts.

raven by caesarstone
raven by caesarstone

And I know that most of you understand that, but sometimes I feel it needs saying just so we are all clear where we stand. I always tell you if I have been paid as well and hope that you trust me to make a decision on that based on what I think you will like and what I like.

In addition to the blog I also do work outside to earn my living and I have been lucky enough to work on some really exciting projects such as window dressing for Heals and designing a room set for Hillarys blinds that ended up on the front cover of their brochure. And it’s fun to write about those projects. And so I worked with Caesarstone on their brochure. For money. And I didn’t have to write about it but I thought it was interesting and a product which you might like to know about for your own kitchens and so I did.

vanilla noir by caesarstone
vanilla noir by caesarstone

So yes I was paid to write for the brochure – but not to write about it on here. I did that because I wanted to. And because it’s a product I like I have decided to include it in my own kitchen update which is happening soon. 

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

15 Comments

  1. No problem with you “info-tising” products like this. It’s part of your job and I think your readers are intelligent enough to be aware of that. I think your disclaimer simply underlines that awareness and your integrity- one of the reasons we read you. I’m more than happy to look at Caesaerstone for my renovation and it probably wouldn’t have come up on my radar otherwise. Thanks, Kate!

  2. I found the information on Caesarstone helpful and I like the way you’ve explained the tricky business of sponsorship. Thank you for giving us a pop up free read.

  3. There’s this lot that paid you and another similar lot that didn’t…who cares? What matters is that the reconstituted stone product is great. A stain is easily cleaned with Cif apart from olive oil where my container stands all the time, and I can’t seem to shift the yellow circle. The stone is white and 4 years after choosing it …still looks good apart from a couple of tiny chips. (Can they be removed I wonder?) Any way if you are rather wet and messy in the kitchen this is the work top material to choose.

  4. We remodeled a kitchen in our old house. Used Caesarstone in tones of brown, gold and tan, which worked great with the modern cherry cabinets. At the time, we had 3 (3!) teenage boys, and a girl in college, and this product withstood a tremendous amount of wear and tear. We were so impressed that we insisted on using it again when building our retirement home in 2016. We have a white, grey veined product on the island and a black with sparkly bits on the wall cabinets. When the sun shines just right, the sparkly bits make the ceiling look like a disco hall. An unintended benefit. I can only speak to using it in the states, but the product is incredible. I would recommend it to anyone.

  5. I think most sensible people understand that a blogger, like anyone else, needs to generate some income. Unless you are independently wealthy and have nothing better to do, why would you commit to writing a post five days a week for free?!
    Unfortunately there are people who aren’t particularly sensible and love nothing better than to criticise. It should go without saying that you are not going to randomly write a post extolling the virtues of a product that in reality you wouldn’t give house room, it would compromise your credibility, and the probably modest fee would not compensate for that in the long term.
    Your content is consistently interesting, entertaining and beautifully presented, of course I think you should be paid for producing it. So thank you for the daily pleasure you bring to me, and many other followers.

  6. Hi Kate Thanks for bringing this to my attention, love marbel but very aware of costs and issues with staining. I’m no real fan of granite, but caesarstone sounds the ticket, will have to investigate further. Looks stunning.

  7. I need a new countertop so this article is timely! One thing I never see discussed is how they handle joining 2-3 pieces of material to make it as seamless as possible and continue the “marble veins” if present.
    I’d like to see closeup photos of joins in brochures and info on the ways they are made almost invisible.
    I have an L shaped peninsula that is 2.6m long and 1m wide; the short side of the L is 1.60×0.60. The current (temporary, laminate) top is in 3 pieces and the joins are not only very visible, but “open”. I worry about spending a lot of money on quartz/granite/Caesarstone and have this problem.

    1. Hi Antonella, so a Caesarstone slab is about 3m by 1.44 so you can cover a lot of kitchen – although yes you will need a join in an L-shape. That basically comes down to the skill of the joiner. They glue it and use machines to get it level and hide the joins so they are seamless and barely visible. Perhaps yours weren’t done as well or perhaps it’s harder to make it seamless in laminate rather than in stone or quartz material. If you are interested in Caesarstone I would email them on the address in the post and talk to them about it as yes, you don’t want to spend lots of money if you’re aren’t happy with the result.

  8. I selected quartz/resin for our last property, copying a high end design in the client meeting rooms at my company. We inherited black granite tops with current property – looks day d in comparison. Clear stone wasn’t totally impervious to red wine stains, but I adored it. Will chose again.

  9. Totally agree. Have had ‘bianco drift’ (or very similar!) for over 5 years – was so different to anything else on offer at the time. Still love it. (I agree with Claire that a heavy object will leave a tiny chip on the edge but so far only one tiny mark that is very hard to spot on the edge of the sink!)

    1. I spoke to them about chips and the person I spoke to said they were pretty good at mending them. If you have a large one then keep the chip so they can re-insert it. If you have a small one then they can usually mend that too.

  10. We love our Caesarstone worktops and splash backs! Our Caesarstone has little sparkly bits in too (possibly mirror glass?), which make me feel happy every time the light catches them. It can chip if someone (ahem) drops a very heavy pan on the edge (the peril of le Creuset)… And you do have to be kind to it when cleaning (soap and water only and a soft cloth). But after 10 years in a heavy-cooking, busy household with young child, ours is still going strong and looking good.

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