Decorating & Design
10+ Luxe Kitchens Where Marble Is The Star
Updated on October 18, 2024

Marble is a natural material that is often imitated, but these designers went bold by opting for the real thing. When used in a starring role in a kitchen, marble grabs the spotlight with dramatic veining and adds an organic element that’s timeless and rich. Scroll down for some kitchens from the H&H archive that let this material shine.

In a dramatic kitchen designed by Sarah Birnie, warm wood cabinets and veined marble are a stunning backdrop for the oversized pendant and kinetic stools.

In this kitchen, statement Arabescato Corchia marble is on the counters, plus there’s a full-height application on the walls. “The stone has a cream base to go with the cabinet color, and it has consistent movement in the veining throughout,” says designer and homeowner Jaime Polan Zimmerman. She added clever storage elements, such as a concealed appliance garage and a pantry that’s tucked into an archway leading to the dining room.

Drama is injected via 11 varieties of natural stone in this stunning pied-à-terre by design firm Falken Reynolds, including a heavily leathered Invisible White marble on the kitchen backsplash.

An arched niche with shelves backed in Calacatta marble takes kitchen storage to the next level in this California house designed by Cory DeFrancisco.

The large-scale porcelain floor tile in classic grey and white in this West Coast kitchen is complemented by a bold Calacatta Viola marble on the island counter, backsplash and trim.

The rich, variegated tones in the veining of this marble backsplash is better appreciated up close, such as when using the old school pot filler.

Designer Olivia Botrie opted for a dark Caesarstone for the perimeter counters to add depth, but opted for white marble on the backsplash for lightness (and it makes the brass pot rail pop) in her own kitchen reno.

In this Toronto kitchen, designers Jo Levitan and Maayan Kessler found a slab of marble just wide enough to bridge the cabinets in the kitchen of this Tudor-style home. The veining also bridges the gap between the dark cabinets and white walls, while an integrated shelf offers some display.

In their Saskatoon penthouse, designers Curtis Elmy and Trevor Ciona didn’t want to get stuck with builders’ finishes, so they used their own trades and materials, including this Calacatta Capri marble in the kitchen, which clads the vent hood, island and backsplash.

Designer Jess Craven was inspired by Italian workshops, English cottages and more modern kitchens with vintage pieces for this kitchen. She chose a striking Arabescato marble for the 10-foot island top, and repeated it on the backsplash for consistency.

“Marble had to play a part,” says Shauna Walton, who instead used a dramatically veined marble for the backsplash and island front, turning the surface into the star of the kitchen in a family-friendly way. “The island is the pièce de résistance,” she says. “It’s the first thing you see when entering the kitchen.” Her clients’ weekly pizza-making guarantees splashes of stone-staining tomato sauce, so they opted for hardworking quartz surface to cook on

In a showstopping kitchen in an unexpected lakehouse, large-scale slabs of heavily veined Calacatta Viola marble on the island and walls create an organic pattern that’s in sync with the branch-like pendant.

A slim marble shelf displays art and accessories for a decorative hit.

Svetlana Tryaskina mixed luxe Statuarietto marble on the backsplash and front of the island, with a quartz counter in this kitchen.

This traditional kitchen balances the heady fir-green cabinets with some heavily veined Calacatta Arabescato marble. “We matched the metal banding to the range and then clad the vent hood in Calacatta Arabescato marble,” says designer Jack Creasy. “I love the dramatic presence of the Lacanche range in that off-black color; it’s also soothing against the green.”